Rayman Legends
PlayStation 4
Usually when I write a video game review I open up with a little bit of backstory. My history with the game, if I have played it before, my overall thoughts on the series, that kind of thing. But I can’t do that with Rayman Legends. Why? Because I have never played a Rayman game before! I love platforming games, both of the 2D and the 3D variety, so it is actually kind of surprising that I have never played a game in the series until now.
I had read a few reviews of Rayman Origins for the Wii, and they had all been overwhelmingly positive. When I saw that Rayman Legends was a free game for the month of May for PlayStation Plus members, I decided to download it and see what the fuss was all about. I knew so little about Rayman that I actually thought that this game was Rayman Origins at first. But it is not. It may borrow heavily from Rayman Origins, but it is actually its own separate sequel to that game.
The game doesn’t offer much in the way of story line. There is probably some kind of story line going on here, but if there was a cutscene or an introduction or something like that at the beginning of the game, I don’t remember it. And that is totally okay with me. It was actually kind of refreshing getting to play a game just for the fun of it and not having to worry about its story.
The game begins with you in control of Rayman. You are in the world hub. Different paintings are hung up around you that represent the different worlds of the game. Within each world is about ten or so individual stages that you must complete. Each stage contains a certain number of little blue guys that you have to rescue, known as “Teensies.” There are 700 Teensies hidden away in this game. Teensies operate similarly to stars in Super Mario 64, a game that I seem to be referencing a lot lately in recent reviews. You don’t have to collect ALL of these Teensies, but you do have to collect enough to unlock more worlds and stages before you can move on in the game.
Each world also contains a large number of “Lums”, which are similar to coins in Super Mario 64 (here we go yet again with the Mario comparisons). You are given a grade at the end of each stage based on how many Lums you collected. Collect a small number of them and you get a bronze trophy. Medium is silver. A large number of them will net you gold. In order to 100% pass a level, you have to collect all of its Teensies and get a gold trophy for the amount of Lums you collected. Again, you don’t have to collect them all, but if you are a completionist or a perfectionist like me you are going to try to get as many as you can. I am not THAT much of a completionist, however, that I went back and got all the ones I missed on my initial playthrough. I just tried really hard not to miss anything, although it did happen from time to time.
The graphics for this game are excellent. The amount of detail that went into the artwork and the animation is truly impressive. The worlds are rich and colorful and a lot of fun to look at. I often had to just stop and soak things in from time to time. It really is like you have been dropped smack dab into the middle of a living, breathing cartoon world.
Music and sound effects are for the most part pretty standard fare. What does stand out to me, however, are the musical themed stages. In these stages you must run, jump, and smash your way through hectic and fast paced levels, each one set to the tune of the game’s background music. My favorite stages of this variety were based around the songs Eye of the Tiger and Black Betty. These stages were a ton of fun, and also fairly difficult at the same time. There is a challenge after you have beaten the game where you have to play through them all on one life with extra obstacles thrown in. Those stages are quite difficult.
Standard gameplay consists of the usual “start on the left, make your way to the right” kind of thing. Rayman can jump, punch, ground pound, and use his head to float for short distances. You can also swim in the water and use your head float move to soar through windy areas when the game allows you to do so. Occasionally a wrinkle is thrown in to keep things fresh. There are flying stages that are similar to side scrolling shooters of old. There are Invaded stages where you have to race against the clock to the end of the stage, and there are also the aforementioned musically based stages.
Playing this game brought to mind many classic side-scrollers from my youth. Some of the faster paced stages reminded me of Sonic the Hedgehog. Other stages seemed to combine elements from games like Mario, Mega Man, Ninja Gaiden, even a little bit of Cool Spot as well. Playing this game is like playing an NES or a Sega Genesis classic, but made with today’s graphics. It is a ton of fun. It is challenging in spots too, so expect to die a lot. The good news is that you have an unlimited amount of lives, and the game usually will start you off pretty close to the area where you died. So it never feels overly frustrating. It is the perfect mix of challenging but not too challenging.
Not only is the game a blast to play, it also has an overwhelming amount of content crammed into it. There is a large number of stages to play, each chock full of Lums to collect and Teensies to rescue. It is just really satisfying to play through each level while trying to collect as much stuff as humanly possible. In addition to the game’s original stages, you can also play remixed stages from Rayman Origins. So if you have never played that game before, like me, you can get a glimpse as to what that game is like by playing these special stages. Spoiler alert: it looks and plays exactly the same as this game!
The more you play, the more stuff you unlock. There is a massive library of different characters to try out. They all control exactly the same as your original Rayman character, but I had fun playing with these different skins if only for the reason that it gave me something different to look at. You also collect lottery tickets that you can scratch off to unlock more of the game’s prizes. You scratch these tickets off by rubbing the touchpad on the front of your controller. It is a silly little touch, but I like it. You can use the tickets to collect things like extra Rayman Origins bonus stages, creatures for your creature collection (which is one thing I didn’t really see the point of), and extra Lums and Teensies.
The game also offers online bonus stages where the point is to progress as far as you can on overly long and difficult stages on just one life. You earn Lums and online trophies by beating your competition. I was relatively good at these, but I never did finish in the top 5% or whatever you need for the game’s highest tier online trophy. There is a two player soccer-like game you can play as well, but I never had anyone to play against with this mode. Seems like it would be a lot of fun though.
Even though the main quest is relatively short, all the collectibles and all the bonus stuff kept me coming back for more. I ended up spending many more hours on this game than I originally thought I would. Which is a good thing! I expected this to be a run of the mill linear 2D side-scroller that I would beat in two days and be done with. But all the extra content makes it worth it. I played this game for free, but if I had spent money on it I would definitely have said that it was money well spent.
If you are a fan of classic, old school 2D platform games, you should love Rayman Legends. Having never played a Rayman game before, I was not sure how I would like this game. Turns out, it is one of the best games in this genre that I have played in a long time. Now I kind of want to go back and play all of the preceding Rayman games to see how they stack up. That is the mark of a good game. I definitely recommend.
Overall:
A-
If you liked my review of Rayman Legends, please check out these following reviews:
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