If the reinvigorated Rayman we see in Rayman Legends and its predecessor Origins had been around in the days of the Super Nintendo, we’d all be bowing before the shrine of Ubisoft’s limbless mascot right now, not Nintendo’s Italian plumber.
Following a heavy eight-month delay in order for the former Wii U exclusive to be made into a multiplatform game, Rayman Legends is finally here and it should come as no surprise that it’s every bit as charming and joyous as you had probably anticipated. What is surprising, though, is that it dethrones Nintendo’s own New Super Mario Bros. U as the Wii U’s premier platformer, whilst also giving the entirety of The Big N’s huge back catalog of Mario titles a run for their money.
For those who didn’t witness the rebirth of the Rayman series in Rayman Origins, Rayman Legends is a side-scrolling platformer with an emphasis on speed. Though this might conjure up an instant comparison with the 2D Sonic games, Rayman moves far more fluidly in Legends than the blue hedgehog could have ever hoped to. Whereas only those who had studied the Chemical Plant Zone would be able to blast through it, a large portion of levels in Legends are designed in such a way that you can hop between walls, bounce on the heads of enemies and float through the air seamlessly.
Developers Ubisoft often achieve this by having the collectible Lums outline the easiest paths through the most dangerous parts of a level, helpfully guiding you through an escape route, though not always ensuring your safety; Rayman Legends is still difficult despite it often pointing you in the right direction, but never so difficult that it becomes off-putting. The more inexperienced player would likely have difficulty traversing some of the tricker stages, though this is where the Wii U’s GamePad comes into play.
Rayman Legends offers one of the best uses of the GamePad we’ve seen thus far, as it places the player in control of Murphy, Rayman’s flying frog-like sidekick who can cut ropes, move platforms and tickle enemies to help his cohorts progress through a level. However, while Murphy is incredibly fun to use when playing with friends as you accidentally send them hurtling to their death and such, when you’re playing solo you’ll be given an AI companion to guide through the level, which is distinctly less fun. Fortunately, you’ll be able to skip these levels in the game’s hub if you so wish, and wait until you have buddies around to enjoy them with.
One glaring omission is the absence of online multiplayer, and it’s difficult to fathom why this wasn’t included. It’s true that it’s more fun to play it sitting in the same living room with your friends, but for most of us this isn’t always an option, so including some online co-op would have been nice.
While Rayman Legends is perhaps best enjoyed with friends, it’s not designed with co-op in mind. Outside of the Murphy levels, you’ll never feel like you’re only getting a taster of the game’s full potential if you play solo, something which has always been an issue with the New Super Mario Bros. series. The addition of Rayman’s comrades Globox, Teensie and feisty newcomer Barbara certainly bolster the pace of the game, but if you were worried that this would be detrimental to the single-player experience, then rest assured that Legends is accomplished enough for you to have a blast playing it regardless of how many players you manage to round up.
Rayman Origins was one of the most gorgeous platformers ever, and Legends takes it one step further. The cartoony art style is even more polished and meticulously detailed this time around, with each World offering something new to gawp at. ‘20,000 Lums Under The Sea’, for example, sees you dive into the ocean from a tropical island, swimming past an array of colourful fish and into the dark, foreboding waters below. before making your way through a Rapture-esque underwater city in which you must attempt to sneak your way around various traps, mines and armed guards.
In other levels, enemies will frolic in the background and foreground, with one particularly memorable boss battle involving a mechanical dragon that writhes in and out of view, destroying the level around you as it does so. In Rayman Legends, there’s something visually wonderful waiting for the player around every corner, and as a guy who’s bounced on the heads of oversized Goombas on Giant Island in Super Mario Bros. 3, clambered up a ghostly pirate ship in Super Ghouls ‘n’ Ghosts and endured the rotating room in Super Castlevania IV, I feel I have the authority to state that never has a side-scrolling platformer contained so many awe-inspiring moments in such quick succession.
On level design alone, Rayman Legends has now raised the bar in terms of what all other platformers from here on out should be hoping to achieve. Never is there a dull moment to be had playing it, and that’s exactly the way it should be.
Composers Chrisophe Héral and Billy Martin have also returned following their excellent turn on the Rayman Origins soundtrack, orchestrating another wonderful soundtrack that not so much complements each level as it does improve it exponentially. The music works hand-in-hand with the game, subtly changing as you progress through a level, intensifying as you encounter one of its larger-than-life enemies before mellowing when you take a dip underwater.
Such a resounding success was the Origins soundtrack that Héral and Martin’s music is even the focus of each end-of-world level, where players will have to rhythmically jump, punch and glide their way through stages that have been created in accordance with the composers’ whimsical renditions of songs such as ‘Eye Of The Tiger’ and ‘Black Betty’. These levels are undoubtedly the highlights of the game, and I found myself redoing them over and over again just to achieve that perfect score.
If that wasn’t enough, on top of Rayman Legends‘ main game there’s also a plethora of unlockables, including ‘Invasion Stages’, which are redesigned and more difficult versions of existing levels, the Challenge Mode, which pits players against a time limit and tasks them with scaling an online leaderboard, along with a handful of Rayman Origins‘ best levels thrown in there for good measure. Ubisoft has ensured that you’ll be entertained for hours here, and that’s not even taking into consideration the large amount of replayability the game offers for perfectionists such as myself.
Rayman Legends has done it. It’s not just the best side-scrolling platformer of this generation, but it’s arguably the best of any generation. It’s a game clearly created by people with a love for their craft, and while the genre it resides in is not as prominent as it once was, hopefully it will inspire a whole new wave of developers to pick up that ball and run with it.
Paul Tamburro is the Associate Gaming Editor for CraveOnline. You can follow him on Twitter @PaulTamburro.
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