Rayman Origins was one of the biggest surprises for me in 2011, I didn’t hear much about the game until it came out and I saw it in a shop. Now I hated the 3D Rayman’s that were released, meaning the only Rayman that I enjoyed and loved was the PS1 version way back when, and everyone knows it was fantastic. So when I heard the announcement of legends, I was so excited, so excited, and when I saw the fantastic Castle Rock? Even more so, then when I played the demo on a Wii-u in a store? I was h
onestly going to buy a wii-u just for this game. Well now it’s released for everything, and thankfully during the transition nothing has been lost, mostly, this is a fantastic sequel.
Onto the game, Rayman and friends are asleep and can’t be awoken, nightmares are being had and you must stop them by rescuing teensies throughout the levels and collecting lumms as well. Story was never Raymans strong point, and they are not pushing it here, it’s a basic story line that just sets the tone a little and lets you get one with it. There are a lot more Lumms and Teensies scattered around each of the much longer levels, 10 teensies and to get hidden throughout a level, to get a gold trophy for a level, you now need a wopping 650 lumms compared to Origins 350. in the first world, getting all of these little guys is child’s play, I didn’t start actively looking for them until the last few levels of the first world, though by the 4th world it becomes much more tricky to find them, giving each level more play through opportunities, and some frustration.
Though getting a set number of the lumms you also earn Lucky cards, which are basically scratch cards, you can win Lumms or Teensies, but this is the only way to unlock the Back to Origins levels, and unlock creatures. Creatures are little, well creatures, that once a day will spawn Lumms for you to collect and look at in a show room 
painting. For the completionists out there the fact these are all random will drive them nuts. Though there is so much to do in this game though, to get 100% is a very daunting task. Though there is more you can unlock without the element of chance, mostly, different characters can be unlocked either by saving them throughout the worlds or by earning enough Lumms to break there locks in the Champion painting. Though a lot of them are just colours of the same 3 characters, little bits are added to make them still enjoyable unlocks.
One of the biggest compliments to game play is the art style, which help make this game become one of the best looking 2D platformers I’ve possibly ever seen, Rayman has always been a cartoon styled game, but the detail of all the little things in this game is wonderful, from the backgrounds to the animation of Rayman himself, I still find myself just staring at parts of the levels aimlessly because of how pretty they are.
As mentioned earlier, at the end of each world you get a special level, for the first one being the fantastic Castle Rock, which is too fun to not play through multiple times, but it gives a massive reward for finishing each world to be given these little play throughs.
What is even better, for those who really want to get into this series, Rayman Legends will be the best place to start, as it includes 60 of the original Rayman Origins maps remade for Legends, and they play fantastic, so don’t think you will be missing out if you start here? This seriously blew my mind when I saw this in the game, at first I expected it prompt a purchase of DLC, nope all levels have to be unlocked the old fashioned way, well, you have to earn the Lucky Tickets the old fashioned way, then hope against hope that someone likes you enough to let you win a Origins Painting.
Then when you have finished the game, and have tried or succeeded to collect everything, there are still challenges to complete, Daily and Weekly, where you compete against all other players to glide, run or collect lumms as fast or as far as you can, there are not many people playing it when I was on there (Managing to get 1st still was great though, take that UbiOneKenobi), you also get lumms for earning Bronze, Silver or Gold in these, not to mention a nice achievement or Trophy to show off to you friends.
Rayman Legends shows people just how a sequel should be made, not just rehashing the same game play, not going off in a massive direction change for “A wider audience” , it takes the core game play and evolves it in every way possible, and then throws even more content on top of it for the more invested players. This is a game that should be on any platformer lovers list, and should be played, this game gets 5/5 because it fixes any problems the original had, and just adds even more. This is plain and simply a fantastic game.
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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