Can Rayman finally become a platform legend?
Rayman Origins was one of the surprise games of 2011 and while before I wasn’t a fan of the limbless guy, I was bowled over by the difference from the old games and actually warmed to the franchise. The gameplay in Rayman Legends is more refined, but also more of the same…which isn’t a bad thing by any stretch of the imagination…
The story in Legends continues 100 years after Origins and in that time, 10 more princesses have been captured so it’s up to Rayman and co to rescue them and the Teensies along the way. The formula of getting from A to B still exists, as do the hidden areas for the Teensies and Lums that you need to collect. Additions include getting Lucky Tickets after collecting enough Lums which can unlock anything from extra levels to creatures and new characters to play as. There are over 120 levels and 40 remastered levels from Origins to keep you more than busy and the difficulty is quite high at times, even more so than the likes of DKC Returns…
Having said that, the game is really accessible and almost impossible to put down. The game also comes with weekly and daily challenges to try and beat times/scores of online players, it’s a great addition and one that keeps me coming back every day to try and beat the people on the leaderboard, they also appear as Ghosts during your attempt so you can see just how close or far away you are from taking over their spot on the board.
The game was clearly designed as a Wii U game from the get-go with some bits like using the L1/R1 buttons to rotate wheels that would have obviously been used to move by tilting the Gamepad, but it’s not a huge problem within the game and it doesn’t detract it from being just as good, if not better on other consoles. I personally loved the design of each level and it kept me coming back to try and get all the Teensies and the right amount of Lums in each, which is no easy task, let me tell you.
In terms of visuals, Rayman Legends looks beautiful with its lusciously colourful worlds and characters; it has a steady framerate and has a great charm to its artistic style. The music is also truly brilliant and memorable throughout. It is a real contender for 2013’s Game of the Year alongside BioShock Infinite at this point, but obviously there’s still a ton of great games to come and so time will tell who will get the crown…
The Verdict
Rayman Legends takes what worked with Origins and improves upon it beyond belief. This is without a doubt the best and most beautiful platformer that I’ve played in years and I cannot wait to see what Ubisoft can do with the franchise next.
