Title: Rayman Legends
Platform: PC, 360, PS3, PS Vita, Wii U
Developer: Ubisoft Montpellier
Publisher: Ubisoft
Price: Already heavily discounted from full price games.
Release Date: August 30th, 2013
Tagline: The best platforming game in years.
Family Friendly: Click here for more information.
Verdict: Must-buy for all platforming fans.
After being underwhelmed with Ducktales: Remastered a few months ago, I was worried that my love for platformers had begun to wane after all these years. Rayman Legends however, is truly a breath of fresh air for the platforming genre.
Rayman Origins was one of several games that I had intended to buy but never quite got round to making the purchase. Classic platformers such as Sonic, Aladdin, Crash Bandicoot, Jak & Daxter (I was a Sega and PlayStation fan so no Nintendo classics feature here) were some of my favourite games during my early gaming career so it’s great to see platformers making a return to form in recent years.
Rayman, taking a quick breather.
I’ve been keeping a close eye on Rayman Legends – from the Ubisoft Montpellier studio – which had me convinced of it’s gaming credentials the moment Mariachi Madness first graced our screens.
The gameplay and music are painstakingly kept in sync and from playing one of these levels you can really appreciate how much time and effort it must have taken Ubisoft to create each one. Unfortunately, there’s only a handful of these music levels – although you do get an opportunity to replay each one in an modified yet excruciatingly harder ’8bit’ version, once you’ve accumulated enough teensies.
Rayman Legends brings the wonderful art style from Rayman Origins but instead of giving us more of the same, manages to offer a surprising variety in its levels. The level gallery is laid out gorgeously with several corridors of paintings, with each painting representing a level or a group of levels. The more levels you complete the more you unlock and taking into consideration that you also get access to a bunch of Rayman Origins levels, the amount of levels on offer is very impressive. Within each level you are tasked with finding and rescuing the teensies which have been captured. These are often out of sight in hidden areas that you need to search for and upon each discovery it is hard not to feel a sense of accomplishment.
There’s a real variety to the levels, especially when you start swimming.
Having so many levels, you might assume that Rayman Legends would begin to feel stale as you make your progress through the game. Somehow, Ubisoft manages to avoid this, by continuing to deliver fresh ideas throughout the game. The swimming levels in-particular are an absolute delight to play through. There’s even a few levels where you’re transformed into a duck!
By completing certain levels you can also unlock extra playable characters. If you collect enough lums during a level then you will earn a scratch card that will either unlock extra paintings, give you more lums or unlock a creature. These creatures don’t really serve any point other than being a collectable. Each one you collect, will earn you additional lums – the amount being dependent on the creature’s level – that can be collected once a day.
The story of Rayman Legends’ transition from Wii U exclusive to cross platform title has been well documented but the implementation of Murphy in solo play highlights how much consideration has been given to the other platforms. Murphy is there to provide a helping hand, cutting ropes, moving levers and distracting monsters by tickling them.
Trying to control Murphy – with the use of an action button – at the same time as controlling your main character takes some adjustment, but after a few minutes it feels just as natural as any other game mechanic. As the game progresses and the difficulty ramps up, these sections also become harder, requiring exact time precision, but it never feels too tough to accomplish.
Murphy taking advantage of the monsters weakness – being ticklish.
If leaderboards and challenges are your thing then Rayman Legends also includes a daily and weekly challenge. Some are time based, others are based on how far you can keep going, just like temple run but a platforming version. Your score is weighed against everyone else and based on percentages you are awarded gold, silver or bronze trophies for your score. A nice touch that Ubisoft have included is the ability to see other players’ ghosts.
This means that you can very easily see if you are falling behind or what the other players are doing differently. For example, you can gain a speed boost by attacking whilst sprinting, this was something that I only discovered by seeing other players pull away from me during the challenges.
If all of that wasn’t already enough to keep you busy then Ubisoft have also included a football mini game in the form of Kung Foot. You can play up-to 2 vs 2 in a frantic no-holds-barred match where you need to score as many goals as you can. These matches often descend into complete chaos, but looks like great fun. I wouldn’t expect Kung Foot to hold your attention for too long but it’s certainly worth checking out. Unfortunately, this mode can only be played with those that are privileged enough to be your friends.
The boss fights offer more variety than most platformers.
The online connectivity appears to be the only real downside to Rayman Legends. Even though the game is described as a co-op, this only applies to those who are playing on the same console as you. Those wanting to play cooperatively online will be left severely disappointed. Considering the growing trend of online co-op games it seems a strange decision from Ubisoft to not include it in Rayman Legends.
Putting that disappointment aside, Rayman Legends is a fantastic game that shows just how a modern platformer can still innovate in a genre that is almost as old as gaming itself. This is the best platformer that I have played in years. Considering how cheap this game already is, I can’t help but recommend it as a must purchase for any platforming fans.
Extra Life:
Lots of levels to keep you busy alongside daily/weekly challenges and Kung Foot.
Just as gorgeous as Rayman Origins but implemented with such versatility.
Music Levels. This is by far the best thing about Rayman Legends.
Game Over:
Lack of online connectivity.
Only a handful of music levels. Please give us some more as DLC!
Family Focus
Due to the ability to play local co-op, Rayman Legends could be a great opportunity for parent and child to play together but even playing solo I’m sure this would be a great game for children to play. Rayman Legends is designed to be played in short sessions which is perfect for parents and children alike and it rarely feels too challenging with the game gently raising the difficulty as you progress through the levels. Outside of the main game, I’m sure that Kung Foot would appeal to families looking to establish bragging rights.