REVIEW: Rayman Legends

I reviewed Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 quite some time ago. It was dug out of my desktop and it was my very first upload to this blog, but I do recall looking upon it and I was worried about being seen as childish. I mean, it’s a lego game; it’s a game about a toy that is specifically designed for children! Admittedly I’m not too worried any longer given The Lego Movie’s success and Lego Batman 3’s imminent release, but at the time I thought this was a valid feeling.

So I decided to really dedicate myself to this new review; Rayman Legends. I know this would immediately appear to be another “kiddy” game, but really, it’s what the game is to me and what that represents that is driving this review.

I bought this game a year or more ago and I can’t help but keep coming back to it. It’s so much fun that I feel we should be getting more games like this; 2d fast paced platformers with gorgeous graphics and intricate levels. Believe me when I say that the graphics this time around are a lot sharper, but this does not a good game make. No, but the visual upgrade certainly helps when you’ve just finished a run; the imagery is just stunning, there’s a greater use of colour and depth that was present last time around, but not as memorable as this.

Brighter and sharper imagery, Origins above and Legends below.

This game really does gaming properly – decent difficulty curve to start with, ramping things up as you go to start putting you to the test. And there’s not a great deal in terms of development throughout the game, many of the mechanics you’re introduced to are accessible from the word go and easy to apply. This means you spend a great portion of the game getting to grips with these tight controls. You’ll find that running up walls and bouncing between them becomes a more natural thought process than Call of Duty would like you to believe it could be.

That last part brings me over to the “combat”. If video games need more of anything it’s gritty realism, more hard-hitting violence and a larger palette of the colour brown to choose from…. HAHAHAHAHA!

Shouldn’t really be a hard decision…

Anyway, Rayman and his pals take a lesson from Mario and Sonic; jump on your bad-guys. It’s a nice way of using them to keep the flow of movement going and this game is all about movement. Their are plenty of enemies to be punched and kicked but the games shines in it’s ability to make you keep going back for that perfect run – case in point; the music levels. There are a few select levels that have you running and jumping to famous pieces of music, each jump and punch timed to the beat of the drum. Of course these tunes have been radically done over to fit in with the style of the game, but it doesn’t take away from the joy at any point. Running to Eye of the Tiger or Black Betty is easily one of my favourite past-times in the game.

The regular challenges have made a pretty good distraction too – ranging between time trials and distance challenges, it becomes almost addictive to keep trying, all the time running against ghost versions of other players around the world. It helps pull you into the challenge, you know you could beat PWN19963 if you could bounce harder of that spring. Immersion is certainly a great thing, but we’ve been led own the path by a creepy man that wants to tell you that gritty story and lots of brown helps this become more realistic. Maybe that creepy guy would be right if the world existed in the S bend of my toilet but otherwise that dude can fuck off! 

Immersion happens when you’re made to care about something, it occupies your thoughts and you enjoy thinking about it. Rayman Legends is one of those games; it’s brightly coloured, fast paced, challenging and most importantly – FUN. If we can’t continue to develop games more like that then there may not be a whole lot of hope left in the world – unless you’re one of those who likes the COD series and you think Rayman can suck the business end of a shotgun, if that’s the case then the industry probably has you covered.

But fun is a part of what keeps drawing me back to the game, it’s enjoyable and I can’t put the controller down sometimes because I HAVE to beat this other guy. It helps to spawn friendly competition that blooms in each individual run as opposed to shooting someone in the head with a rifle. Maybe I’m wrong but I think that Rayman could well be the saviour of the platformer industry and that’s something to be really happy about.