Rayman is the first game that I ever played when I got my Playstation. I remember thinking how the graphics were revolutionary at the time and the mass enjoyment I got swinging Rayman’s fist around punching plumbs off their vines to ride along the piranha infested waters. I enjoyed it so much when I got my PS3; I rebought Rayman when I found it at a car boot sale. Now Rayman is back on the next gen consoles, which was a little surprise to me as it originally started off as an exclusive to the Wii U. Luckily for me though the gaming gods shone upon me and the game was released on all platforms and I managed to grab myself a copy to review on the XBOX One. Now you’d expect with it coming to next gen there’d be a few new features or better graphics, unfortunately there is little difference at all, but it is hard to improve on what was already close to perfection as a family friendly side scrolling action game.
The story of Rayman is nothing special really, dreams have been infected by evil and it is your job to rescue all the Teensies and collect Lums. It’s nothing that seems to run throughout the game though, you get a short introduction to explain your mission then you just tend to go about your business and try to complete the game. As you complete each mission you will be awarded trophies for collecting both Teensies and Lums. Collecting these allow you to unlock lots of bonus content. Accumulate Trophies to increase your awesomeness rating allowing you to unlock new weekly and daily challenges to compete against gamers from around the world. Amass enough Lums as well and you will unlock Lucky Tickets as you finish each level, which can either give you more Lums, unlock special creatures, reveal new heroes to play as or even additional levels in a Rayman Origins section that offers you an extra few hours of fun with many additional levels to complete.
I was really impressed with the graphics of the game as well as all the additional extras it came with, because the game has a nice 2.5D effect that really makes the artwork standout. The backgrounds were very detailed and each level looked completely different, with their own unique features like being chased by fire, falling through giant chasms and having to glide to avoid danger, objects sinking into sand as you climb your way to safety, jumping on musical creatures and also flying on mosquitos. That’s right there is so much to do and the variety and mixture of different levels means you can never get bored because you’re never really repeating anything unless you’re doing it to collect more trophies.
The designers also did well to hide the hidden areas, which sounds silly because they are meant to be hidden but at times I had to give levels two or three playthroughs before I realised where they were hiding because they were so well blended into the level designs. Heroes also looked great and again as mentioned in the gameplay, they were clear to see at all times because the game ran so smoothly, but what do you expect when it runs at 1080p and 60 fps. I mean I miss the original graphics from Rayman where it was made to look a little more 3D, but as times change so do the games and I guess that it still works well overall.
The gameplay is great too; its picture remains smooth at all times and the controls are precise and do exactly what you want them to. The game does has one noticeable difference that speeds up gameplay slightly compared to the previous gen console versions because the load time has decreased significantly, meaning you can jump from the galleries (level select areas) to the levels, and from levels to hidden areas with not so much as a breath in between. You’ll easily get used to the controls as well as you use some of Rayman’s famous skills such as using his hair to glide successfully across large gaps, wind up his powerful fist to unleash a devastating blow on your enemies and inject a burst of speed into your run to give you an extra boost when jumping from ledge to ledge.
One downside of the gameplay that hasn’t come from the original game on the Wii U to rest of the platforms is that one of the characters, Murfy, can no longer be controlled. On the Wii U you’d be able to use the pad to move Murfy around the screen, but now you can just action him to help move objects in certain levels. I mean I suppose it’d be a little hard on the XBOX One as you have no touch pad, but it must be severely disappointing not to be able to have this feature on the PS4 with its ‘innovative’ touch pad that seems to rarely ever be used. I have to admit that I was excited about the PS4 touch pad at first thinking it would make games more immersive, and Killzone used it well I guess, but other developers seem to be reluctant to use it in their control set up unless it’s an exclusive title, which so far on the PS4 there hasn’t been many decent exclusives released.
You can also play the game in co-op mode with friends playing as a different hero to yourself. Some areas of the game you’ll notice that his really helps you out, especially in some of the daily challenges where you need to collect Lums. But at other times it will begin to frustrate you immensely as you get in each other’s ways, or one runs off too far ahead meaning you die or can’t go back to an area where you left behind one of the Teensies. Don’t fear though there is an arena to settle your disputes in situations like this. It’s a small football arena where you can settle any disputes you have with your partner. The aim is just to hit the ball into your opponent’s goal more times than they hit it in yours. The best way of doing this is to knock the ball in the air where you will notice the ball gets a special glow and then smack it which gives it a powerful boost and fires across the screen. If you’re losing though you can use dirty tactics and start punching your rival instead as there are no rules in Rayman football.
So to conclude Rayman Legends is a great game that offers many hours of fun and frolics as you battle with or without friends to save all the Teensies from the cages that hold them. The story could have been a bit more involved with the game but it doesn’t really run strongly through the game and fails to tie everything together that well. The positives are that there are tonnes of added extras such as the Rayman Football and Rayman Origins missions which give you an increased incentive to complete your normal missions because some of the content needs to be unlocked by Lucky Tickets. The daily and weekly challenges are also great to enjoy, some can be played with friends others cannot, but they allow you to compete against friends and random gamers from all over which adds a competitive edge to the game that some Rayman games haven’t had. Overall there really is nothing negative about the game except the loss of control over Murfy and you’d be silly not to buy this if you enjoy the games from the Rayman series or just games purposefully designed for having fun.
Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.
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