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Genre: Adventure
Publisher: Ubisoft
Release Date: June 08, 2012
Available Platforms: Nintendo 3DS, PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Nintendo Wii, XBox 360

Rayman Origins

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<strong>ABOUT THE GAME</strong> <hr align="center" width="100%" size="1"> Michel Ancel, celebrated creator of Rayman, Beyond Good & Evil, and the Raving Rabbids, returns to his roots to bring us Rayman Origins: a high-definition, 2D side-scrolling, platform adventure with four-player co-op! Play Rayman Origins and discover or rediscover the magical universe and legendary 2D gameplay that captured the hearts of millions of fans. When the Glade of Dreams is overrun by nefurrious Darktoons, the Fairy Council hastily invokes Rayman to save the day; but the hero of light isnt quite all there To help him, Rayman teams up with his best friend, Globox, and two crafty wizards, the Teensies. Together, the worlds most hilarious team of heroes will...

George Orton November 20, 2012 360

****

Now here's a game that my 10-year-old self would have loved.

The 2D platformer is a genre that was perhaps at its height when I first got into games in the early 1990s, but which seems to have gradually fallen out of favour over the past couple of decades as gaming technology has advanced. These days, I'd be hard pushed to name more than a handful of 2D platformers to have come out in recent years, and that's probably because developers are so overwhelmed with the 3D possibilities offered by today's consoles that they simply don't see any need to confine themselves to the restrictions of such a primitive, simplistic genre.

Well, Rayman Origins is perhaps the best argument in favour of the old-school 2D platformer that I've ever seen on a current-generation console. It takes the traditional building-blocks of the genre - navigating large maze-like levels, avoiding baddies, collecting items, and executing pixel-perfect jumps from platform to platform - and marries them to the kind of lush animation, beautiful backgrounds and advanced special effects that would have blown the mind of my younger self. It's no exaggeration to say that the animation and character designs of this game could hold their own against many animated feature-films, and the fact that it's animation of the old-fashioned hand-drawn variety (that seems to have been abandoned by the likes of Disney lately) makes it all the sweeter.

Another important aspect of platformers is feeling like the game mechanics work properly, and that you're never robbed of a mis-timed jump or a failed time-trial objective due to a fault of the game. And Rayman Origins passes this test with flying colours, keeping the controls and abilities of Rayman himself very simple and straightforward, and ensuring that button-presses correspond to movements with an almost instant, fluid response.

But most importantly (even more so than the fantastic visuals and the game mechanics), the game is just so much fun. It's easy to forget how pleasurable those old 2D platformers were - and just how many hours of my life I must have lost to Sonic, Mario and their ilk, back in the day - but on playing Rayman Origins it all comes flooding back. Don't worry if you're not familiar with the character: as the name suggests, this is an 'origin' story that doesn't really require any previous Rayman experience to appreciate, making it accessible even to complete newcomers to the franchise like me. And being an all-ages cartoony sort of game, it's also perfect for all the family. I have young kids who can't share in the fun of many of my favourite (more adult-oriented) games, so it's wonderful to have something we can all enjoy together.

And crucially, in an age in which many of those more complex adult-oriented games seem to take forever to get started (with infinite customisation options and endless tutorials that mean that it often takes a good hour or more to truly 'begin' a game) Rayman Origins is unencumbered by such concerns. It's something you can pick up and play immediately, and it's also a game that doesn't require long extended periods of play-time to make progress. There aren't many games that I can stick on the Xbox and have a bash on for just 20 minutes or so, but this is one of them.

So if you're looking for a distilled shot of old-school platforming fun, but filtered through a modern lens of lush graphics and huge sprawling levels, then 'Rayman Origins' is definitely for you. For older gamers like me, it's a shot of pure nostalgia that isn't undercut by vague not-as-good-as-it-used-to-be sentiments (as with the more recent Sonic and Mario games) - and for kids, it's a colourful, cartoony blast.