Collectomaniac
Once again the Glade of Dreams is under attack again and it’s up to Rayman and his friends to save the day once more. As soon as you start the game you know instantly that this is a much larger beast than Rayman Origins was.
Collecting Lums and finding Teensies was the big goal in Origins and it’s the same again in Legends. The Lum count has now been increased per level and every Lum you collect now goes into a counter which helps unlock extra characters later in the game. Teensies have also increased and there are now 10 to find on most of the maps. The more Teensies you have the more of the game you open up and boy there’s a lot to open up.
Overall there are 5 main worlds to explore each with a set number of levels in. The different variety of levels is truly amazing and even though each world has a set theme no two levels feel the same. At the same time the levels gradually ramp up in difficulty. They start off at a nice easy pace but then border on the insanely difficult the later in the game you get. Unlike most games where I get frustrated and switch off, Rayman never had that effect on me.
Sure I got frustrated I knew I would but at the same time I knew I would continue and try again. This is part of the charm of the game it’s frustrating but not frustrating enough for it to be switched off and forgotten about. If I had one minor complaint to make about the game is that they have taken away the Moskito levels from Origins. I found these were some of the best levels in Origins and to not have more of them in Legends was a little disappointing. To their credit though they have gone and replaced the Moskito levels with something of pure genius, Music themed levels. These perfectly timed levels are designed around songs that most should be able to recognise and when you’re not crying with laughter at how brilliant they are, are one of the highlights of this fantastic game.
Challenge round every corner
As well as these worlds there are daily and weekly challenges that can be taken on. These challenges some of which are easy some of which are just plain mental are here so you can up you lum count and potentially up you trophy count. The more trophies you get from either completing levels or completing challenges will go towards your awesomeness level. In terms of multiplayer the game can be played in 4 player local co-op just like the previous game and as well as that they have also thrown in a fun little mini game by the name of Kung Foot. This is just a basic yet fun version of football with a Rayman style twist.
Visually the game is a masterpiece. If you played origins and thought that looked good legends goes one better. The art style used for this game is amazing and it really is in a league of its own when it comes to the visuals. The same can be said for the music and sound. For those who played Origins I can happily say that the music is just as daft and memorable as it ever was.
Unlockables Everywhere
Like I mentioned earlier there is a lot to unlock in this game and thats not just levels. There are countless extra characters to unlock which gets done by collecting lums. The other way of unlocking things in this game is done in the form of collecting lucky tickets.
These are obtained by collecting enough lums in each level. Collect enough and you get given a ticket which you can then scratch off. These tickets can give you a number of different things but the main two things they give you are creatures, yet another thing to collect in this massive game and the second thing you can unlock are re-mastered levels from Rayman Origins.
I told you there was a lot to unlock and even I was amazed by how much there was. What amazed me even more was the fact that all this was on the disc I say that because it would have been easy for Ubisoft to add the Origin levels as a DLC pack or made extra characters purchasable like so many other games seem to want to do nowadays. But everything has been made available on the disc and personally it just reminded me of how games used to be, full of content and not looking to make that extra buck by charging extra for something it knows people would want.
The Verdict
Overall Rayman Legends improves on what Origins did. Personally I didn’t think that was possible as I thought Rayman Origins was platforming gold but Rayman legends has surpassed it. With a seemingly endless amount of content to unlock this game will keep you entertained for weeks and it shows that platformers are not dead. Fun to play with friends or by yourself Rayman Legends is pure genius and like I said at the start of this review the best platformer we have had this generation. Your move Mario.