Rayman Legends

Introduction

Despite the near twenty year history of the 'Rayman' franchise, complete with various spin-offs, 'Rayman Legends' has seemed entirely intertwined with the Wii U. The game was introduced to the public as a Wii U exclusive ahead of its (launch title) time only to be held back and ported to no less than five platforms. The question is, was it worth the wait?

Then again, fans of the 2011 'Rayman Origins' are likely to only care that a sequel was made and is probably available on their platform of choice. (Sorry Dreamcast) And so, what's left is a game that many may expect, but many more go into completely without knowledge of the series or what to expect.

The Game Itself: Our Reviewer's Take

Right off the bat, it is easy to say that 'Rayman Legends' is nothing ground-breaking but nevertheless defies convention. Consider it similar to an expertly made and exquisite sports car that can still be driven speedily and comfortably by just about any novice in your family.

'Rayman Origins' is fine platformer with tight control, good level design, pleasant visuals, nice variety, and some inherent challenge. It is just the kind of game to please fans of platformers. Rayman's long time accumulated skills such as his directional punch, run, jump and hover abilities can be finely controlled and contain nuances such as ledge grabbing and wall jumping for a total effect of sublime control. After playing a significant amount of 'Rayman Legends,' including several remade 'Rayman Origins' levels, 'Rayman Origins' just seems crude, with challenging but rough levels, remarkably lesser visuals, and only a fraction of the amount of variety and total content.

For me, playing on the Wii U, with a mix of co-ops and single player sessions, 'Rayman Legends' is engaging in a way that game's first Wii U demo failed to reveal.

Naturally, I have already classified much of the game with no mention of its story, which would be irregular for many titles, but not 'Rayman Legends.' Rayman, Goblox, and co. awake from a long slumber to find that each level has been taken over by bad guys and that each Teensy (blue royalty persons) must be individually found and freed while the many Lums (yellow and purple this time) must be contently collected in order to unlock many things.

It would be unfair to say that the story is entirely inconsequential, rather, it is each individual level's design that tells a small scale story screen by screen and level by level.

Level gimmicks play a role, but there seems to be level variety great and small, with chase levels, challenge levels, invaded levels, musical levels, character freeing levels, teensy-freeing bonus levels all filling out the core level traversal experience.

The per level difficulty ranges, as is represented by the number of skulls on the level entrance's poster frame. But it seems clear that levels reflect a greater degree of accessibility and rhythm than 'Rayman Origins.' The contrast in design philosophy between 'Rayman Legends' and a game like 'New Super Mario Bros. Wii' is staggering with the latter's tendency to punish rhythmic, natural level traversal constantly seeming both sadistic inelegant.

The great caveat though, is the game's co-op, which is local only. What can seem workmanlike in single player comes alive when one player is moving through the level while the other is assisting with Murphy on the GamePad's touchscreen. The Wii U can support five total players, and being in the level together gives them a winter wonderland/jungle gym feel. Meanwhile in single-player, some levels are so good and so fun that they seem to exist beyond the range of just trying to get enough Teensies and Lums to unlock every level, creature, and costume in the game.

Then there are the challenge levels. At any moment, there is a daily challenge level, a weekly challenge level, and extreme versions thereof. Getting full access is merely a manner of raising the player's Awesome level, which exists as global measurement of game progress. By constantly mixing up the current challenges, the player can always hope to ascend the leaderboards, beating friends, countrymen, or even the world. This being the Wii U and before the game's general release, the full extent of competition was stunted. Of course, on the Wii U, the game has had a Wii U exclusive challenge app for awhile, almost like a beta test.

Whenever I stopped playing co-op, and went back to single player, the experience was lesser and the for most part the gameplay was harder. Without the Murphy player, hitting each level's top Lum goal was much tougher. Of course, in some levels, such as ones where the player falls with the edge of the screen chasing, having only one player in the level made it easier to focus and beat the level. Deciding which way to mange co-op was part of the fun though. Likewise, unlocking new costumes for each of Rayman's crew was significantly more enjoyable with in co-op. Without co-op strategies, the game's dynamics can feel stilted, and items like lucky scratch tickets merely a means to unlocking all the content.