The last time we saw Rayman he was coming down from a particularly tall peak called Rayman: Origins. Origins was very well received and came along with a lot of unique ideas and creative touches to freshen up its platforming genre which has certainly seen better days. While some of the game’s peers had been content to phone it in, Origins gave a ton of replay value and some of the best platforming co-op you could ask for. Now the long (emphasis on long) anticipated Rayman: Legends is here and it brings back everything good about Origins along with a couple other cherries on top.
Legend’s overworld is laid out via an art gallery where you can navigate through the worlds and levels by jumping into the paintings. In the game you take control of the titular character, Rayman, or one of his several friends. All the discernible characters from Origins return and as before they all pretty much play the same.
Characters called Teensies are scattered throughout each level and collecting them will add to an overall count of 700. Usually you’ll find a few by following the straight and narrow path but most of the time about half of the Teensies in a level will be hidden just out of the way. Don’t worry, you don’t have to collect them all. (I was able to get the end credits to roll with just under 300.) Once you rescue a certain number of Teensies the next level will open up. Even if you’re not great at the game you’ll probably collect a hefty amount of Teensies and can start to play the levels in an order of your choosing. You can’t go straight to the very last level or anything that extreme but you do have some say in where you’ll go and what you’ll do next.
Now if you’ve already run through Origins you’re probably wondering what’s new in Legends. The game’s biggest new mechanic arrives in the form of Murfy, a greenbottle fly that you will frequently be asked to control with your touch screen should one be available. Murfy is able to manipulate the environment on screen by tapping and dragging objects. Most of his time will be spent clearing the path so that the characters on screen can proceed through the level. He can sever ropes to clear spike traps, move platforms around, carve paths through walls and so much more.
If you’re playing the game solo then taking control of Murfy will drop in an AI partner to navigate the levels while you handle business on the touch screen. I did run into one or two very small hiccups with the AI but for the most part it was very intuitive and generally not a cause for frustration.
If you’re playing on a system without touch screen capabilities Murfy’s segments are mapped to a button and you just continue controlling your character like normal. When you approach a platform that would normally require touch screen input you just press the “Y” or “Triangle” button instead and the computer does the rest. This change generally doesn’t mess with the quality of the platforming but it does remove one of the more appealing features in the game. Even if you don’t have a Wii U or Vita the game is worth picking up, but either of those systems really make a strong game even stronger.
A particular highlight for me in the game is the new musical levels where you’re tasked with reaching the end as quickly as possible while a song plays in tune to your actions on the screen. The levels have been timed so that your jumps and punches will correspond to the music. This makes it incredibly satisfying when you barely know that a jump is coming but are able to nail it for no other reason than you expected it to go along with the song. Most of the songs are covers of popular licensed tunes which makes the levels even more intuitive and fun.
If challenge is your thing then you’ll be satisfied with the other new level type: Invasion. Invasion levels allow you to revisit stages that you’ve completed previously except they’ll be re-arranged and timed. Most of these are very challenging and will probably require a number of retries before you nail them. To amp the challenge up even further Invasion levels are tied into score and leader boards so you can see very clearly how much better everyone else is doing than you.
Speaking of revisiting levels the game also includes a huge slew of levels from Origins that have been re-imagined and restructured. They play just as good as ever and fit perfectly into a game that already has hours upon hours of replay value.
Multiplayer is where Legends really shines and the game features a variety of ways to have some fun with your friends. Co-op is obviously the main draw. Characters will simply pass through one another while traversing levels which alleviates some of the frustrations that come along with co-operative play in games like New Super Mario Bros. where you’re constantly bumping into one another and accidentally sending your friends down chasms. You can navigate all the levels as a group and when Murfy is in use the game allows for up to five people playing at once.
If you’re feeling particularly competitive you can hop into the newly added “Kung Foot” mode where you’ll split into two teams and play a simple game of soccer against one another. It’s a simple mode and probably not going to be a huge time investment but it did lead to a shouting match or two when I was playing with friends.
Rayman: Legends is easily the best platformer of 2013, it may even be the best platformer of the current console generation. It’s insanely well polished, good humored, and puts some neat twists in a genre that’s long grown complacent and stale. Nintendo is really going to have to pull out all the stops with their next Mario game because right now I’m pretty comfortable saying Rayman is king.
