Developer: Ubisoft Montpellier
Publisher: Ubisoft
Rrp: £15.99
Released: 29th August 2013
Available on Steam, Uplay and Amazon
Played using: A Xbox 360 control pad
Rayman Legends is a direct sequel to Rayman Origins, and I’ll be honest, I have no idea what the story-line is. Something to do with dreams? Sorry, I really did try to understand but I can’t get my head around it. The good thing is my lack of understanding of the story didn’t make a blind bit of difference to the game itself.
The goal of Rayman Legends is to save as many Teenies as you can. Collecting these will unlock further levels allowing you to slowly progress through the game. There are also Lum’s floating around in the game, these strange yellow or purple creatures can be used as currency to unlock more characters or ‘Heroes’ in the Heroes Gallery. Also as with its predecessor collecting a certain amount of Lums in a level (the number of which needed changes from level to level) will grant additional bonuses, one of which is a Lucky Ticket.
Lucky Tickets are in game scratch cards that can unlock certain parts of the game… Including a forty remastered levels from Rayman Origins, I have to admit, I didn’t expect that.
Mechanically speaking the game is mostly the same as its predecessor at least as far as Rayman himself is concerned, the biggest difference comes from your occasional helper, Murfy. Murfy flies alongside Rayman assisting him in his adventure, with him you can move certain objects, cut ropes and press buttons, all of which Murfy automatically goes to. Of course, Murfy isn’t in all of the game, in fact he’s only really used in certain levels.
Unlike Rayman Origins, this game doesn’t have a world map to act as a level selector. Instead the levels are split into several ‘stories’ each one represented by a painting. To access the levels you have to jump into the painting and then find the level you want within that story. At the bottom of said painting are a series of skulls, this indicates the difficulty level, one skull being easy and five hard.
Each level also has a ‘invaded’ version of itself. This new mode becomes unlocked as the game progresses (I’m unsure if that’s down to the amount of Teensies collected or that the completion of certain levels). Levels you have previously completed will spawn a new painting representing the invaded version. This new level is a time trail and generally much more difficult than the level it spawned from.
There is a ‘creatures’ section that is a bit of an oddity in this game. They can only be collected through lucky tickets and seem to serve no discernible purpose other than to spawn Lums when they are unlocked.
Packed, that’s definitely a term that I would use for this game. Between the multiplayer (which I can’t honestly speak about as no one I know actually has this game), collecting the creatures, the invasion levels, unlocking the other characters, daily and weekly challenges, and finally the main campaign your aren’t exactly lacking fro something to do.
Thankfully the developers have implemented a kind of status screen that you can access in the level selection area. This will allow you to quickly see what new levels or items have been unlocked and allow you to travel to them instantly.
The visual style of Rayman Origins was beautiful but Rayman Legends is much more striking, it’s colours are more varied and vivid. It’s also very well animated with creatures moving not only in the active play area but in the background and foreground as well.
This game is all sorts of ridiculous, fast paced fun. I mean there’s a musical level where you run and fight to the tune of Black Betty, complete with enemies popping up to do the lyrics. That being said, this game’s end game is beyond frustrating, as much of a completionist as I am when I spend three hours trying to get past one level I have to call it a day.
I do recommend this, it’s a great platformer and delivering more of what made Rayman Origins great, it even gives a lot of product for the asking price… But be extremely wary if your a completionist, this game will drive you bonkers.
If this interests you then perhaps try;
Dustforce
Battleblock Theater
Never Alone
