Rayman 4 (2025 video game)

Rayman 4 is a 2025 action-adventure video game developed and published by EZstudios. It is the sixth main entry in the Rayman series, following 2013's Rayman Legends, and the first installment of the new reboot trilogy. Set in 2011, within the urban setting of the fictional state of El Dorado, based on California, the brand-new story follows six protagonists:


 * 1) Scott Raymond (AKA Rayman); a 49-year-old retired actor known for playing the famous Rayman character back in somewhen between the 1980's-1990's, and after the death of his family, is now living under the witness protection program and currently fighting crime as a vigilante. He is voiced by Hugh Jackman.
 * 2) Finn Mertens; a 32-year-old Canadian tourist who travels around the world in order to relieve his stress over the death of his best friend, Jake. He is voiced by Leonardo DiCaprio.
 * 3) Penny Fitzgerald; a 24-year-old optimistic shape-shifting yellow fairy who has recently broken up with Gumball Watterson and is now following her own adult life as a cheerleader. She is voiced by Elle Fanning.
 * 4) Ethan Vasquez; a 25-year-old autistic street rapper with werewolf powers who has the desire to be Penny Fitzgerald's boyfriend after her break-up with Gumball. He is voiced by Tom Holland.
 * 5) Gumball Watterson; a 25-year-old unemployeed anthropomoprhic blue cat who is Penny's former boyfriend. He is voiced by Daniel Radcliffe.
 * 6) Trevor Wilson (AKA Globox), a 52-year-old unemployeed anthropomorphic obese blue frog who is currently struggling with depression, self-destructive behaviour, and drinking addiction. He is voiced by Dave Bautista.

and their attempts to bring the notorious serial killer, Mr Dark, and his gang of criminals to justice. The open world design lets players freely roam the entire fictional state of El Dorado.

Gameplay is shown in a first-person or third-person perspective and the world can be traversed on foot or with vehicles. Players control six protagonists and can switch between them during and outside of missions. A "tension" system defines the response and aggressiveness of law enforcement against crimes committed by the player.

Rayman 4 was met with generally favourable reviews from critics and newcomers, who praised the setting, visuals, story, main characters, their voice actors, the open-world map, and the impact choices had on the narrative, however, Rayman fans heavily critized the entire game for its change of the franchise's genre, graphic violence, shortage of fantasy elements, the crossovers between the Rayman franchise and other animated TV shows, the GTA-style gameplay, and depictions of sensitive themes.

The game will be released for all consoles in September 1, 2025 in order to celebrate Rayman's 30th anniversary.

Unlike any Rayman game, this is the first Rayman game to be open-world, not to be made by Ubisoft and to receive a Mature rating for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Partial Nudity, Suggestive Themes, and Use of Alcohol and Tobacco.

Gameplay
Rayman 4 is an action-adventure game played from either a third-person or first-person perspective. Players complete missions—linear scenarios with set objectives—to progress through the story. Outside of the missions, players may freely roam the open world. It may be fully explored after the game's beginning without restriction, although story progress unlocks more gameplay content.

Combat and health
Players use melee attacks, firearms and explosives to fight enemies, and may run, jump, swim or use vehicles to navigate the world. Should players take damage, their health meter will gradually regenerate to its halfway point. Players respawn at hospitals when their health depletes.

Crimes and "tension" meter
If players commit crimes, law enforcement agencies may respond as indicated by a "tension" meter in the head-up display (HUD). Triangles with an exclamation mark displayed on the meter indicate the current tension level (for example, at the maximum five-triangle level, police helicopters and SWAT teams swarm to lethally dispatch players). Law enforcement officers will search for players who leave the wanted vicinity. The meter enters a cool-down mode and eventually recedes when players are hidden from the officers' line of sight that displays on the mini-map for a period of time.

Players may choose to act in either a good or evil way. Examples including healing civilians, doing drug busts, and stopping suspect brutality for good, or killing innocent civilians and killing instead of apprehending enemies. Several times throughout the story, the six protagonists may find themselves in a scenario where they must make a good or evil choice. In combat, the six protagonists may use their abilities to incapacitate foes or obliterate them with headshots. They may also choose to open fire on innocent civilians.

Miscellaneous
Each character also has a different smartphone for contacting friends, and accesing an in-game Internet. Players can purchase cars, upgrade weapons and tune vehicles. Players also have the opportunity to access places such as cinemas, stores, car dealerships.

Superpowers
Each protagonist has their own unique special ability based on their own "superpower".


 * Rayman has the ability to deal more damage during melee combat.
 * Penny can shapeshift into a different but also stronger animal (examples: dragon or medusa).
 * Gumball can enter a "rage" mode, where he is capable of dealing double damage to enemies while becoming nearly invulnerable to damage.
 * Ethan can transform into a werewolf, dealing more damage to enemies during melee and weapon combat.
 * Finn can deal more damage to enemies with his golden sword.
 * Globox can grab heavier enemies and throw them with his super strength.

Each protagonist has a small star-shaped meter above the radar which indicates how much time the player has left before the special ability deactivates.

Vehicles
Other aspects includes the vehicles, the game-play for those vehicles includes car dealerships, in which the player can buy or sell cars; a garage, in which the player can manually or automatically upgrade their cars, and a paint shop, in which players can create custom paints, liveries, and paint presets for their vehicles.

Cars are divided into four different rarity classes:


 * Common
 * Uncommon
 * Rare
 * Exotic

There are over 50 separate and controllable vehicles in Rayman 4: More vehicles coming out soon!

Radio stations
In Rayman 4, the radio is dynamic; DJs and news programs inform the protagonists of the current weather and time of day. Raccoon News updates itself as the storyline progresses, sometimes reporting news about the protagonists' actions.

Exiting a vehicle does not automatically switch the engine off, and the radio will still play while the engine is left idle. To fully switch the engine off, the player must hold the enter/exit button when exiting the vehicle. When getting phone calls, it will interfere with the radio signal, much like in real life.

The game offers 10 radio stations for the player to listen:


 * Radio Wretch - Country, Southern Rock
 * Saint Angelos ROCKS FM - Rock, Pop Rock, Hard Rock
 * Radio Saint Angelos - Hip Hop
 * HeartPop FM - Pop, R&B, Dance-pop, Eurodance, Synthpop
 * Radio XTREME - Heavy Metal
 * Nightride FM - Synthwave, Vaporwave
 * Santos Surf - Surf Rock
 * Euphoria FM - Disco
 * Pre-Millennium Radio - 1990's-(early)2000's Grunge
 * Electro FM - Techno, Acid techno, Acid house, Electro House

Synopsis
Fueled by the restoration of his faith in society and inspired by Rayman's selfless act, Gordon Fitzgerald (Penny's grandfather, voiced by Morgan Freeman) enlists his new member of the "Vigilantes" group, Rayman, to combat old and new enemies, most notably Rayman's first enemy, Mr. Dark.

Together, Rayman and Gordon nimbly seek and recruit a team of humans and mutants.

Main characters

 * Hugh Jackman - Scott Raymond/Rayman
 * Daniel Radcliffe - Gumball Watterson
 * Elle Fanning - Penny Fitzgerald
 * Leonardo DiCaprio - Finn Mertens
 * Tom Holland - Ethan Vasquez/The Big Bad Wolf
 * Dave Bautista - Trevor Wilson/Globox

Supporting characters

 * Morgan Freeman - Gordon Fitzgerald
 * Billy West - Murphy
 * Cillian Murphy - Mr Dark
 * James McAvoy - Dipper Pines
 * Emma Watson - Phoebe Ember/Flame Princess
 * Kristen Stewart - Mabel Pines
 * Willem Dafoe - Rick Sanchez
 * Jacob Tremblay - Morty Smith
 * Keke Palmer - Johanna Williams
 * Ana de Armas - Rosa Flores
 * Michael B. Jordan - Darwin Watterson
 * Millie Bobby Brown - Barbara Wilson
 * Jake Gyllenhaal - Thomas Haines/Testificate Man
 * Brad Pitt - Daniel Mulligan/Kid Cosmic

Critical reception
Rayman 4 was met with generally favourable reviews from critics and newcomers, who praised the setting, visuals, story, main characters, their voice actors, the open-world map, and the impact choices had on the narrative, however, Rayman fans heavily critized the entire game for its change of the franchise's genre, graphic violence, shortage of fantasy elements, the crossovers between the Rayman franchise and other animated TV shows, the GTA-style gameplay, and depictions of sensitive themes.

Sales
Rayman 4 is currently the fifth best-selling video game of all time with an estimated amount of over 95 million copies sold all around the world and with a worldwide revenue of $3 billion.

Death of Floyd Parker
Due to its change of the game style, original Rayman fans were unsatisfied with the new style of the game comparing it unfavorably with the Grand Theft Auto series and other installments of the Rayman franchise. This caused the first producer of the game, Floyd Parker, to commit suicide in mid-late 2022 due to hate comments and cyberbullying towards him.

"The 7th story"
The game's story also went through 8 major changes throughout development. The first six stories were received poorly by Rayman fans due to the use of characters from Star vs the Forces of Evil and lack of fantasy elements. The 7th story, however, was different. Which was originally going to be M-rated and was also going to be written by Ethan Vasquez, the 7th story of the game made parents' opinions on the game polarizing due to the extreme violence, explicit content of the story and use of characters from The Loud House, a cartoon that is infamous for its toxic fandom. The game was later changed for the last time now featuring characters from The Amazing World of Gumball, although the graphic violence is still in the game.

Warning
Despite the game featuring characters from children's media, this game may still not be suitable for those under 17 years of age. So any parent who has a child who may consider letting their child to play this game, please read this.

Classification

 * Argentina: +18
 * Australia: MA15+
 * Brazil: 16
 * Canada: Mature (M)
 * Chile: 18+
 * Europe: PEGI 18
 * Germany: FSK 16
 * Indonesia: 18+
 * Iran: +15
 * Japan: CERO D
 * Mexico: C
 * New Zealand: R15
 * Russia: 16+
 * Singapore: ADV16
 * Slovakia: 15
 * South Africa: 16
 * South Korea: 15
 * Taiwan: 15+
 * United Arab Emirates: 16
 * United States: Mature (M)

Sex and Nudity (Mild)

 * No nudity. No sex is seen, but it is discussed (vaguely) a couple of times.
 * One scene, Ethan and Penny have sex off-screen.

Violence and Gore (Severe)

 * You can kill people as you wish but you will face the consequences for your behavior, which is what happens pretty much in real life, although the violence here isn't frequent, not helped by the fact that the violence is extremely graphic and this game has incredibly realistic and highly detailed graphics that make the violent content look more "in-your-face".
 * There is a torture scene. This is very graphic and by far the most violent part of the game. You can break your victim's knees with a wrench, pull one of his teeth out, waterboard him, and hook cables up to his nipples to electrocute him. This is required to do and is very sadistic and disturbing, not to mention played completely seriously. Most of the game is nowhere near this violent though.
 * Players can use a wide array of weapons ranging from pistols and shotguns to machine guns and grenades to kill people, with a cloud of blood usually splattering on the area. Cars can be used as weapons, too, both purposefully and accidentally, as players race through crowded streets slamming into anyone who gets in the way. A lot of blood will stain the environment if this happens.

Profanity (Severe)

 * Frequent uses of curse words such as "f*ck", "sh*t", "damn", "hell", "b*tch", and "turd".

Alcohol, Drugs, and Smoking (Severe)

 * In the story, it is explained that Rayman has a smoking addiction due to his thoughts that his smoking will relieve his stress over the death of his family.
 * It is also explained that Globox binge drinks.

Frighting and Intense Scenes (Severe)

 * The re-telling of the main villain of the game (known as Mr Dark, whom is now retold as a serial killer) might frighten younger players.

Trivia

 * Rayman 4 was originally gonna be a project by Floyd Parker, but after his suicide due to hate comments, one of his close friends, Eric, decided to revive the project to make the project as a tribute for him.
 * Billy West is the only one reprising to the cast for his role as Murphy.