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Rayman Legends
PC (Steam)
Legendary Platforming
4.5/5 stars
“Rayman Legends” is the direct follow-up to Ubisoft’s first internationally-acclaimed ‘Rayman’ title, “Rayman Origins.” It seems that Ubisoft, one of the Triumvirate of Evil and long-term gaming trash peddler, has chanced upon something with their reboot of ‘Rayman’ – a particular formula of tough-but-fun platforming, 4-person simultaneous coop, and beautiful 2D graphics. As the second game in the rebooted ‘Rayman’ continuity, “Rayman Legends” doesn’t do a lot of new things, but what it does do, it does incredibly well.
Presentation
Like “Rayman Origins,” “Rayman Legends” is a layered 2D game built in the UbiArt framework (which has also been used to great effect in “Child of Light”). Nothing about the presentation has really changed. The 2D ‘Rayman’ assets are still gorgeous, well-animated, and vibrantly cartoony. There is always a lot of hectic action happening on-screen, and the engine handles it beautifully.
The soundtrack in “Rayman Legends” is not quite as good – generally – as that or “Rayman Origins.” There is also no more Pig Latin voice-acting. However, “Rayman Legends” ups the musical ante a bit with the addition of several “Guitar Hero” style musical stages that actually connect the soundtrack directly to the gameplay. This is a fantastic innovation that I will touch upon a bit more later.
Technically, “Rayman Legends” is rock solid. I can’t really say I’ve had any problems with Ubisoft’s PC games from a technical perspective… outside of the monstrosity of DRM known as Uplay that is required by most of Ubisoft’s games (even when they already have Steamworks DRM), including “Rayman Legends.” I was surprised to see that recently “Rayman Origins” has appeared in GOG’s library of 100% DRM free games, so it’s possible that Ubisoft is learning from their past foibles, but I wouldn’t count on seeing “Rayman Legends” lose its DRM for a few years (if ever).
Story
The perpetual sticking point in ‘Rayman’ games for me is that I have no idea what the Hell is going on most of the time. I have a vague understanding of the cast of playable characters and a cursory knowledge of the game world’s backstory, but the fact that neither “Rayman Origins” nor “Rayman Legends” offer a satisfactory opening or closing, nor any form of light narrative threaded through the games’ structures still leaves me wanting. Tell me more about Rayman, Globox, and the other weird playable characters, Ubisoft!
Gameplay
“Rayman Origins” rubbed me the wrong way towards the end, as the last half of the game’s stages were more difficult than fun, which left the first half of the game as something of a false advertisement. Ubisoft seems to have gained a bit of understanding of how to construct challenging-but-fun platformers, and has managed to sand down all of the difficulty spikes in “Rayman Legends.” Of course, there are still a couple examples of ‘That One Stage’ that are ridiculously difficult, but for the most part, the really tricky stages can (read: must) be completed in 40 seconds, so the tedious repetition that normally drags down tough platforming challenges is completely gone.
“Rayman Legends” features nearly identical gameplay to “Rayman Origins,” right down to the bubbleizing deaths and friendly-fire in coop mode. About the only noticeable difference is that the characters no longer gain additional abilities as the game progresses – all of the power-ups that players needed to earn in the previous game are unlocked from the outset in this one. The platforming is identical, with identical controls for running, jumping, slapping, sliding, and other traditional platforming behaviors. In certain stages in “Rayman Legends,” however, the player(s) is given a stage-specific power-up (replacing the mosquito-riding stages from “Rayman Origins”). One of these power-ups is an infinite-use boxing glove that allows characters to attack at range, while the other is a weird little firefly-like companion who follows the characters through the stage and can interact with background objects the normal characters can’t (triggered by hitting the Y button).
In addition to the new platforming missions in “Rayman Legends,” the game provides a selection of missions dubbed “Back to Origins,” which have been lifted from the previous game. Besides standard platforming, “Rayman Legends” also features a soccer minigame and a challenge mode, for folks who love to chase leaderboard position.
The single best new feature of “Rayman Legends,” however, is the previously-mentioned “Guitar Hero” style musical stages. These stages (of which there is one in every game world, plus a bonus world with a bunch of 8-bit variants) take standard ‘Rayman’ platforming and set it against a musical backdrop. Thus, in these stages, the player’s jumps, attacks, and other moves need to be timed to coincide with the soundtrack. I have never been a fan of Rhythm games, because they are essentially a boring game of “Simon Says” with music I don’t care for as the backdrop… but replacing the standard “Simon Says” button pressing with 2D Platformer-based button pressing suddenly made the whole concept click with me. I loved the musical stages in “Rayman Legends” and wish there were more of them!
Overall
“Rayman Legends” smooths over nearly all of the rough edges, difficulty spikes, and general aggravation that made its predecessor end on a sour note. The new musical stages are a fantastic addition to Rayman’s wheelhouse… so much so that I would gladly buy a ‘Rayman’ spinoff title consisting of nothing but musical stages. While I still hate Ubisoft with a passion, the small amounts of creativity that have managed to escape their gravity well via the UbiArt engine have convinced me that the company isn’t 100% evil… just 90%.
Presentation: 5/5
Story: 1/5
Gameplay: 4.5/5
Overall (not an average): 4.5/5
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