Rayman

"Combat fatigues! That's exactly what we need! You're right!"

- Rayman

"Of all the inhabitants here, you are the only one whom Polokus did not dream. You are the only one to receive powers from the fairies. Some see you as the chosen one of all the gods. Who knows...?"

- Knowledge of the World if the player collects 999-1000 Lums in the PC version of Rayman 2

Rayman is the main protagonist of the video game series same name created by Ubisoft game designer Michel Ancel. He first appeared in 1995 on the Atari Jaguar, Sony PlayStation, Sega Saturn and MS-DOS. He is voiced by David Gasman.

Rayman
Rayman has to defend his home from the clutches of Mr. Dark, who has stolen the Great Protoon from its rightful resting place. He gets help from Betilla the Fairy and the Magician. This game introduces many of Rayman's well-known traits including his helicopter-hair and his long range fist-throwing.

Rayman 2: The Great Escape
Rayman appears again to fight against Admiral Razorbeard and the Robo-Pirates in Rayman 2. In this game, many of Rayman's friends and introduced including Globox, Ly, Murfy, and The Teensies. In this game it changes his fist-throwing to shooting energy balls.

Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc
In 2003, Rayman dealt with Andre, the leader of the Black Lums in Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc. It changes rayman's main ability back into to punching with his fist. He reappears two years later to rescue his best friend Globox in Rayman: Hoodlum's Revenge. More recently, Rayman has returned in the Wii party games Rayman Raving Rabbids, Rayman Raving Rabbids 2, and Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party. He is currently Ubisoft's official mascot.

In 2003. Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc was introduced into the already popular and famous francise where Rayman dealt with an evil black lum, called Andre who appears to want to enslave the world by force using his huge Hoodlum Army and a Knaaren champion called Reflux. After this, another game was introduced to the story which is a direct sequel to Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc, called Rayman: Hoodlum's Revenge.

Appearances
From 1995 onwards, Rayman has had his appearance changed slightly for each game, to be able to give him more expressions. He is typically found wearing white gloves, a red scarf (or hood as seen in Rayman 3), a purple shirt with a white "O" on it, and yellow sneakers. The O appears to have magical properties. Whenever he earned a new power in Rayman, sparkles would appear around the O; in Rayman 2, it was used to open the stones holding the masks. While he appears to have no arms or legs, his feet and hands are somehow connected to him but can be removed and reattached. Rayman is made up of electoons as shown in the first game. When he dies, he transforms into five or six electoons which quickly zoom towards the sky.

However, he has been known to change appearance, beginning from Rayman 3 onwards. While the different "combat fatigues" only caused changes to Rayman's hair, shirt, and shoe color, players in Rayman Raving Rabbids are able to dress Rayman in a variety of costumes. They start with the choices of Disco, Gangsta, and Grandmother. As more mini-games are unlocked, other costumes, such as Rock 'n' roll, Disc jockey, gothic fashion, and Bunny become available. Even more costumes, such as Hippie, Dracula, and Caveman, are added in Rayman Raving Rabbids 2.

His appearance and persona matches that of a typical teenager.

Abilities
Rayman has a few unique powers that he retains at all times, mainly those granted to him by Fairies. First of all is the far reach of his fists. Being limbless, Rayman is able to launch long range punches at his enemies. He does not display this in Rayman 2, instead throwing energy spheres at his enemies. However, Rayman 2 is the only game where he retains this power; he uses his fists to attack once again in Rayman 3. In Rayman Raving Rabbids, players use the Wii Remote and Nunchuk to control his movements rather than attacks due to the mini-game based nature. Another well-known power of his is the ability to use his hair to not only glide, but also to be used as a mini-helicopter. Most of the time, Rayman is unable to ascend. However, in certain situations where he is given an extra boost, he is able to power it up and go wherever he pleases.

Rayman 3 introduced power-ups known as "combat fatigues" or "Laser Washing Powder". These not only changed Rayman's appearance, they give him a specific move depending on the can he picks up. There are five of these in total, known as the Vortex (ability to lower certain platforms and shrink enemies), Heavy Metal Fist (powerful metal fists able to knock down big obstacles), Lockjaw (grabs onto flying rings similar to Purple Lums, and electrocute enemies), Shock Rocket (hand-guided rocket able to reach far away targets), and Throttle Copter (helicopter). However, these powers are only present in Rayman 3 and have not been mentioned in any other game to date. (refer to Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc)

In Rayman 3, Rayman's hands are shown to have a life of their own. At the end of the game, as he is sleeping, they crawl away from his body and intentionally frighten a red lum. Frightening a red lum causes it to transform into a black lum, and so Andre is born once again. Though it is done comically and the consequences are never looked into, the fact that Rayman's hands may be malicious cannot be ignored. That said, his hands may not understand the true consequences of their actions and may just be mischievous. They are, after all, simply hands. Additionally, in Rayman 3, a being called the Leptys gave him the power to transform Black Lums into Red Lums. This consists of Rayman making a ridiculous face. This is reminiscent of Rayman 1 when Rayman could make a weird face before obtaining the running power. This wasn't very useful, though he was able to scare some of the more cowardly hunters in the jungle with that face. Rayman is the main hero in Rayman Raving Rabbids 1, 2 and 3 and has the same look like in this picture.