Rayman Legends
Publisher: Ubisoft Developer: Ubisoft Montpellier Platform: Wii U Players: 1-4 Release: 2013 Genre: 2D Platformer / Action Rating: 9.2 \ 10.0: Excellent
Above is four people playing a stage from the world Toad Story
In 2011, Rayman Origins was considered by many to be one of the year's best platformers, if not the best, and its sequel has finally arrived. Following the events of the last game, Rayman and crew are once again snoozing in the Glade of Dreams. However, they lose track of time and end up sleeping for an entire century, during which evil monsters invade the Glade. To add to this, the Teensies are in trouble-- 700 of them, to be exact. It was not the Livid Dead that did this, but the five villainous Dark Teensies! No that you've awoken from your deep slumber, it's up to you to rescue the the adorable blue creatures and get revenge on the Dark Teensies by punching them into the far reaches of space, where they will land in craters on a small moon and the demonic inhabitants will create an amusing song out of their yelps by prodding them with pitchforks.
Rayman Legends introduces a new hub world. You no longer traverse a Mario-style map, but instead enter paintings to access stages-- Super Mario 64 style. The game has a new amusing twist-- by collecting enough Lums in any given stage, you will receive a scratch ticket. By scratching one of these tickets, you can win more Lums, a Teensy, a creature, or a Back to Origins stage. There are 60 creatures to collect, and each one produces Lums daily. Back to Origins stages are levels recycled from Rayman Origins that include some of this game's new features. The level designs may be the same, but the levels have been recreated from the ground up to use Legend's updated art style.
There is a fun new multiplayer minigame called Kung Foot, which is essentially mini-arena soccer with no penalties for unnecessary roughness, if you catch my drift. There is also a new level type that was known during the game's development period as "Platform Hero", a title that parodies Guitar Hero. There is one of these great stages in each world. Each one features a lyrics-free version of a licensed song, and you must complete the stage in perfect sync with the music. For example, you may have to jump over an exploding object at a loud beat, slide down a zip line collecting Lums to the melody of a rapid stream of notes, and may have to repeat the process-- it's kind of hard to explain. My favorite stage of this variety is Mariachi Madness, which features the song "Eye of the Tiger" with kazoos! Additionally, Murphy, a grinning frog introduced in Rayman 2, now serves a much greater purpose then simply asking if you want to quit the stage as he did in this game's predecessor. In multiplayer mode, whoever is using the GamePad can play as Murphy and assist the other players by lifting obstacles and stalling enemies by tickling them (that's Rayman humor for ya). Some segments require Murphy to help. When you're alone at these parts, the AI will take over for your character. Your character will perform near flawlessly when controlled by the AI, so if a computer-controlled character dies, you can only blame yourself, eliminating frustration. There are a handful of surprisngly enjoyable stages in which Murphy is in the spotlight.
For those seeking competition, there are daily and weekly online platforming challenges to engage in against players worldwide, ranging from scaling an infinite tower to collecting a given amount of Lums as fast as possible. A Nintendo Network ID is required for this, but you can register for free. Also, there are new Invasion Paintings stages in which you have one minute to dash through a difficult gauntlet to save Teensies strapped to fireworks. Similarly to the variety of playable Teensies in Origins, there are many versions of the new character, Barbara the female barbarian. The Wii U edition of this game features two exclusive characters: Ray Plumber (Rayman dressed like Mario) and Glob Plumber (Globox dressed like Luigi). One last great feature: the visuals, a beautiful blend of hand-drawn art and 3D models that don't look at all out of place. No one expected a game to top Rayman Origins' graphics, but Legends somehow manages to pull this off. However, as with Origins, this game is very challenging. All of this is accompanied by a spectacular soundtrack that's as zany as before, but also has some epic orchestrated pieces including rearrangements of music from the previous game in the franchise.
Don't be surprised when you get stuck at a single segment of a stage for what seems like forever, then have to restart the stage the next time you play. Anyone who hasn't played a game like Rayman Origins may have a tough time adapting to the difficulty level and the inability to save your progress in the middle of a level. My biggest issue is that adding lots more literal magic, the game loses metaphorical magic. This may seem difficult to understand, but anyone who's played both games will probably feel how I do-- I just don't like the medieval / fantasy theme as much. There are some people that would rather battle a dragon than ride a sentient flying flute through the clouds, but I prefer originality over fantasy. Rayman Legends is an amazing platformer, but it's not nearly as good as the game that came before it.
Rayman Legends introduces a new hub world. You no longer traverse a Mario-style map, but instead enter paintings to access stages-- Super Mario 64 style. The game has a new amusing twist-- by collecting enough Lums in any given stage, you will receive a scratch ticket. By scratching one of these tickets, you can win more Lums, a Teensy, a creature, or a Back to Origins stage. There are 60 creatures to collect, and each one produces Lums daily. Back to Origins stages are levels recycled from Rayman Origins that include some of this game's new features. The level designs may be the same, but the levels have been recreated from the ground up to use Legend's updated art style.
There is a fun new multiplayer minigame called Kung Foot, which is essentially mini-arena soccer with no penalties for unnecessary roughness, if you catch my drift. There is also a new level type that was known during the game's development period as "Platform Hero", a title that parodies Guitar Hero. There is one of these great stages in each world. Each one features a lyrics-free version of a licensed song, and you must complete the stage in perfect sync with the music. For example, you may have to jump over an exploding object at a loud beat, slide down a zip line collecting Lums to the melody of a rapid stream of notes, and may have to repeat the process-- it's kind of hard to explain. My favorite stage of this variety is Mariachi Madness, which features the song "Eye of the Tiger" with kazoos! Additionally, Murphy, a grinning frog introduced in Rayman 2, now serves a much greater purpose then simply asking if you want to quit the stage as he did in this game's predecessor. In multiplayer mode, whoever is using the GamePad can play as Murphy and assist the other players by lifting obstacles and stalling enemies by tickling them (that's Rayman humor for ya). Some segments require Murphy to help. When you're alone at these parts, the AI will take over for your character. Your character will perform near flawlessly when controlled by the AI, so if a computer-controlled character dies, you can only blame yourself, eliminating frustration. There are a handful of surprisngly enjoyable stages in which Murphy is in the spotlight.
For those seeking competition, there are daily and weekly online platforming challenges to engage in against players worldwide, ranging from scaling an infinite tower to collecting a given amount of Lums as fast as possible. A Nintendo Network ID is required for this, but you can register for free. Also, there are new Invasion Paintings stages in which you have one minute to dash through a difficult gauntlet to save Teensies strapped to fireworks. Similarly to the variety of playable Teensies in Origins, there are many versions of the new character, Barbara the female barbarian. The Wii U edition of this game features two exclusive characters: Ray Plumber (Rayman dressed like Mario) and Glob Plumber (Globox dressed like Luigi). One last great feature: the visuals, a beautiful blend of hand-drawn art and 3D models that don't look at all out of place. No one expected a game to top Rayman Origins' graphics, but Legends somehow manages to pull this off. However, as with Origins, this game is very challenging. All of this is accompanied by a spectacular soundtrack that's as zany as before, but also has some epic orchestrated pieces including rearrangements of music from the previous game in the franchise.
Don't be surprised when you get stuck at a single segment of a stage for what seems like forever, then have to restart the stage the next time you play. Anyone who hasn't played a game like Rayman Origins may have a tough time adapting to the difficulty level and the inability to save your progress in the middle of a level. My biggest issue is that adding lots more literal magic, the game loses metaphorical magic. This may seem difficult to understand, but anyone who's played both games will probably feel how I do-- I just don't like the medieval / fantasy theme as much. There are some people that would rather battle a dragon than ride a sentient flying flute through the clouds, but I prefer originality over fantasy. Rayman Legends is an amazing platformer, but it's not nearly as good as the game that came before it.
Ups
Quirky humor
New story
Tons of content
New character
Use for Murphy
Even better visuals (hard to believe, isn't it?)
Downs
Hard as ever
Newbies will have a tough time adapting
Missing the metaphorical magic
ESRB: E 10+ Content: Cartoon Violence and Comic Mischief Price: $39.99 (Retail)
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