Beyond Good & Evil — 20th Anniversary Edition‘s reveal caught the attention of many Rayman fans last week because an image of the Ubisoft mascot was in part of its reveal trailer. After going hands-on with Beyond Good & Evil — 20th Anniversary Edition, I can confirm that Rayman was teased because the franchise is referenced several times in its Anniversary Gallery, a neat feature hidden behind a couple of menus.
In the Anniversary Gallery, players can learn more about the development of Beyond Good & Evil. Rayman is obviously referenced at the start of that journey, as the team led by Michel Ancel that made Rayman 2 decided to move onto what would become Beyond Good & Evil as its next project. The Anniversary Edition also shows that the Rayman’s Training animated short was a placeholder asset in Jade’s lighthouse during development. To see more Rayman content, navigate to the Secret Stuff part of the Anniversary Gallery, and then choose the “Rayman in my BG&E?” gallery.
This gallery shows that an upside-down model of Rayman was hidden in a cave on Hillys during development, with a 2002 design document proposing the character be one of the rarest animals to photograph. More importantly, this gallery confirms that Ubisoft Montpellier remade a level from Rayman 2 in the JADE Engine, which would go on to power Beyond Good & Evil, to show off some of its capabilities. While this tech demo isn’t playable, some grainy footage remains and is included as part of the Anniversary Gallery.
Ubisoft has mostly ignored Rayman for years, relegating the character to guest appearances in things like Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope DLC and the Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix show on Netflix. As such, it’s nice to see him more explicitly referenced in the gallery of Beyond Good & Evil — 20th Anniversary Edition. Hopefully, the original Rayman trilogy can one day get the same remaster treatment Beyond Good & Evil got here.