PC
PlayStation 3
PlayStation 4
Nintendo Wii U
XBox 360
XBox One
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Product Features

Genre
Arcade and Platform
Publisher
Ubisoft
Release Date
February 21, 2014
Available Platforms
PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Nintendo Wii U, XBox 360, XBox One

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Rayman Legends

Rayman is renowned for incredible art and music and is soon available on the Wii U. Michel Ancel, celebrated creator of Rayman, Beyond Good & Evil is bringing his creation to this new and exciting platform.

  • Gordon Myatt September 05, 2013 PS3
    ****

    RAYMAN ORIGINS was one of the biggest surprises of 2011, a top-quality platform game that reminded everyone how much fun the genre can be when done well. Lush, painted-style graphics, compelling-yet-simple gameplay and some crazy level designs combined to make it one of the most enjoyable titles of the year, ensuring its place on plenty of annual "best games" lists.

    RAYMAN LEGENDS, then, is an attempt to repeat that success. And by and large, it manages it.

    Returning to the world of Rayman is as pleasant and familiar as slipping on a comfortable pair of old shoes. Very little has changed, with the gameplay style remaining virtually identical to ORIGINS, and with the same characters and basic concepts being dusted off and given a fresh lick of paint. And what a lick of paint it is! If anything, the hand-painted visuals look even more beautiful this time around, with a wide selection of different themes for the levels allowing for quite a lot of variety in the eye-candy.

    While there is a (thin) plot that's original to this game - something about shadowy nightmare forces taking over the world again (like ORIGINS) - this is virtually exactly the same combination of platform-jumping, baddie-popping, item-collecting and fast-paced-chasing that gamers enjoyed so much in the previous instalment.

    The only real difference to the gameplay of LEGENDS that I noticed is Murfy, a little fairy-frog-type character who has to assist you in fairly perfunctory ways on certain levels: cutting ropes, lowering bridges etc. in order to allow you to progress. You don't really have to do much in order for this to happen - just press a button or two and the computer does the rest. It's a bit of an odd inclusion that doesn't really add anything to the game - but I gather that it's a relic from when this game was being developed solely for the Wii U console (and I understand that you get to control the character a bit more on that system through the touchpad, which unfortunately the PS3 doesn't have).

    Anyway, this small distraction doesn't take away from the appeal of the rest of the game, which is a thrilling, colourful ride that's reminiscent of the best elements of the old-school SUPER MARIO and SONIC THE HEDGEHOG franchises, but thrown together with a far more vivid and exciting visual style, topped off with some great music to boot! You can even get up to three other players involved in the action too, making it a wonderful family game as well as a fun single-player experience.

    Essentially, RAYMAN LEGENDS is just a continuation of RAYMAN ORIGINS - almost like an oversized add-on pack for the previous game - but with more than a hundred new levels (as well as a bunch of levels from ORIGINS thrown in as a bonus extra) and quite a few juicy boss fights too, not to mention some tantalising and frustrating "challenge" levels, it definitely deserves to stand alone as a full release in its own right.

    Yes, it's formulaic and a bit repetitive, and some people might complain that it's just more of the same - but you wouldn't want McDonalds to change the recipe for a Big Mac each time you bought one, would you?