Rayman Legends is the follow up to the stellar Rayman Origins. Originally announced as an exclusive for the Wii U, it was decided by Ubisoft to release it for all the platforms instead. The specific Wii U elements such as using the touchscreen was altered for the PS3 and Xbox in order to make these sections work, basically, you use the Circle button to automatically get the AI to perform the actions for you to go forward. It works really well and you can't tell that it was originally meant to be touchscreen based. Legends continues on the fantastic art direction of the original. This is a 2D sidescroller game and the environments are beautiful. The character animations are sharp and responsive. The bright colorful environments that Rayman traverse through make every level fun. Rayman will run through forests, swim underwater and travel through medieval castles. There are a few clever levels such as one where Rayman runs through a cake where the path is created by another character eating the cake. You'll have chase scenes and timed levels. There will be levels or sections where it requires precise timing and memorization. You can expect to die a few times and it can be sometimes frustrating due to the trial and error nature.
Thankfully, the game is quite forgiving (except for a few levels) with the numerous checkpoints. Legends plays exactly the same as Origins, except that Rayman has all his abilities from the get go. This means from the first level, Rayman can glide, punch, wall run, dash and swim his way through. The gameplay involves getting Rayman from one side of the screen to the other. Of course, he is required to jump onto platforms to avoid falling to his death, and punch enemies that are blocking his way. It is a classic platformer and the controls are responsive such that controlling Rayman is precise. Whenever you die, you know it's not the fault of shoddy gameplay, it's because your precision wasn't enough. As touched upon earlier, you are introduced to Murphy, where in specific sections on some levels, he will turn up to help you. He is used to help with activating switches and moving platforms. The AI guesses which switches you want to activate and you activate it by pressing the Circle button. This works 99% of the time, but in some sections, it can misinterpret and you have to time pressing the Circle button perfectly or you'll die.
The Magician from Rayman Origins returns, this time becoming the five Dark Teensies. These Dark Teensies have kidnapped ten princesses from different worlds. Rayman and his friends were sleeping during all this time, so he is awakened to save the Teensies. That's basically the whole story, it's minimal at best but then again, it's only an excuse to provide the player some platforming goodness. There are five worlds in total, plus a bonus world. In addition, as a bonus, there are levels from Origins that are included, with changed hidden areas. Collecting Teensies is key to unlocking everything the has to offers. There are also glowing yellow beings called Lums which Rayman collects, these affect the "high score" you get at the end of a level. Collecting enough lums will unlock more playable characters, although these play in a very similar way to Rayman himself. A new twist into the gameplay are the 3D bosses. Each world has a boss and these are your typical platformer bosses, usually finished within three stages. These bosses have gimmicks to them, including being rendered in 3D.
The other new element to Legends, and this is this most innovative concept to the game, are the music levels. In these levels, Rayman has to dash through the level in time with the music and it is so much fun. While it ends up being similar to Rayman Jungle Run or Fiesta Run in that you're really only controlling when Rayman jumps or attacks, the visuals and music add so much to the atmosphere. Legends also has a great soundtrack. The last few remixed music levels though feel unfair as they require not skill but memorization and repetition. These are basically the same as normal music levels but with various effects that distort the screen. These effects can easily make you nauseous and feels like a cheap way to up the difficulty. Legends loads up levels fast, whether it's swapping levels or swapping screens. There is local co-op multiplayer, including a goal-scoring minigame. There are also Weekly and Daily challenges in order to aim for high scores against an online leaderboard. These challenges are actually more interesting and fun than you'll expect. Overall, Rayman Legends is an excellent follow up to Origins. The levels are fun, and the platforming feels fair. With the inclusion of a lot of Origins' levels, Rayman Legends presents great value for money and is worth every dollar.
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