Pure Platformer Pleasure
Rayman Legends is a great 2D platformer. It has smooth controls, fun mechanics, and excellent level design. It's also packed with tons of side content. I've played through this game twice now, both on the base version and the definitive version, and each time was very enjoyable, though there are some small things that still irk me.
Gameplay:
As mentioned, Rayman Legends is a 2D platformer, and it never strays far from that. However, it throws in a lot of extra mechanics to play with. Your base moveset consists of a jump, run, glide, punch, wall jump, ground pound, swinging from vines/ropes, and an ability to run up sloped surfaces. Levels complement this moveset well by placing obstacles in strategic locations to give the game a nice flow at times. Sometimes in levels, you'll unlock the ability to press an extra button that moves objects or toggles certain actions. It's used in moments of fast-paced or tricky platforming, or in some light puzzle-solving, and it's a welcome addition that adds a lot to keeping things fresh.
Throughout the game, you'll mostly be playing through pretty standard platforming levels with their own challenges and whatnot. Their level of challenge is pretty decent, and they have their own hidden areas to find the get collectibles. At the end of each level, the amount of the main collectible, called lums, is tallied up, and you get rewarded for finding enough through trophies and a scratch card. These scratch cards can net you more lums, a pet which produces lums every day, or it unlocks a level from Rayman Origins for you to play. There's 40 Rayman Origins levels to unlock with their own collectibles and everything! It's honestly awesome and someone who never got too far into Origins as a kid. At the end of each of the main Legends worlds, you get to play through a level where you run nonstop and platform through obstacles with the beat of the music. These are easily the highlight of the game, in my opinion.
As you play through the main levels, you unlock new side levels. You'll mainly unlock time challenge levels where you have to run through with a time limit in order to unlock all the collectibles. These can be CRAZY difficult and can sometimes feel like too much, but they're usually a good test of skill. The other thing you'll unlock in this version of the game is version of levels where, instead of pressing a button to activate something, you do so with the touch controls on the Switch screen while an AI driven character does the platforming. These can sometimes be dull, and AI can give you some pain, but generally, it's fun for what it is. It's definitely preferable to trying to use the touchscreen while being the one who's also doing the platforming. Unfortunately, they failed to account for the scratch cards you earn in these extra levels since they weren't in the original, meaning you won't get rewards from them and they sit in your inventory giving you a notification endlessly. This is highly annoying and a major oversight that really annoys me (it's annoying). By late in the game, you'll also unlock bonus versions of the music levels that add some weird screen effects to make things trickier, and make things trickier it certainly does. The artificial difficulty is kind of dumb, but you can luckily still rely on the music. HOWEVER, the bonus version of the second music level is actually atrocious, and although I beat it on my first try, the screen effects they used were a legitimate epilepsy hazard and I want to throw hands with whoever thought it was a good idea.
As for the other parts of side content I haven't mentioned yet, there's daily challenges to play through which is neat. You'll earn lums for participating, and you need a lot of those in order to unlock the various characters you can play as. There's tons of characters to unlock and swap through. They're mainly just variations of the same four models, and their movesets are identical, but it's a cool addition nonetheless. However, the million lum milestone to unlock all of them is absolutely ludicrous and I would not recommend going for it. You have better things to do with your life, I promise.
Music and visuals:
The music in this game is pretty good. The aforementioned music levels use charming covers of licensed music which is tons of fun.
The visuals are very awesome with a creative art style and great animation. Characters and environments are varied and dynamic. It's all very polished.
Conclusion:
Rayman Legends is a 2D platformer that sticks to its core but isn't afraid to expand on it in some fun ways. It's got tons of great levels, a good amount of challenge (usually), and well-made presentation. I'd definitely recommend this game if you're a fan of platformers and/or looking for something to play with friends. It's a simple, good time.
Gameplay:
As mentioned, Rayman Legends is a 2D platformer, and it never strays far from that. However, it throws in a lot of extra mechanics to play with. Your base moveset consists of a jump, run, glide, punch, wall jump, ground pound, swinging from vines/ropes, and an ability to run up sloped surfaces. Levels complement this moveset well by placing obstacles in strategic locations to give the game a nice flow at times. Sometimes in levels, you'll unlock the ability to press an extra button that moves objects or toggles certain actions. It's used in moments of fast-paced or tricky platforming, or in some light puzzle-solving, and it's a welcome addition that adds a lot to keeping things fresh.
Throughout the game, you'll mostly be playing through pretty standard platforming levels with their own challenges and whatnot. Their level of challenge is pretty decent, and they have their own hidden areas to find the get collectibles. At the end of each level, the amount of the main collectible, called lums, is tallied up, and you get rewarded for finding enough through trophies and a scratch card. These scratch cards can net you more lums, a pet which produces lums every day, or it unlocks a level from Rayman Origins for you to play. There's 40 Rayman Origins levels to unlock with their own collectibles and everything! It's honestly awesome and someone who never got too far into Origins as a kid. At the end of each of the main Legends worlds, you get to play through a level where you run nonstop and platform through obstacles with the beat of the music. These are easily the highlight of the game, in my opinion.
As you play through the main levels, you unlock new side levels. You'll mainly unlock time challenge levels where you have to run through with a time limit in order to unlock all the collectibles. These can be CRAZY difficult and can sometimes feel like too much, but they're usually a good test of skill. The other thing you'll unlock in this version of the game is version of levels where, instead of pressing a button to activate something, you do so with the touch controls on the Switch screen while an AI driven character does the platforming. These can sometimes be dull, and AI can give you some pain, but generally, it's fun for what it is. It's definitely preferable to trying to use the touchscreen while being the one who's also doing the platforming. Unfortunately, they failed to account for the scratch cards you earn in these extra levels since they weren't in the original, meaning you won't get rewards from them and they sit in your inventory giving you a notification endlessly. This is highly annoying and a major oversight that really annoys me (it's annoying). By late in the game, you'll also unlock bonus versions of the music levels that add some weird screen effects to make things trickier, and make things trickier it certainly does. The artificial difficulty is kind of dumb, but you can luckily still rely on the music. HOWEVER, the bonus version of the second music level is actually atrocious, and although I beat it on my first try, the screen effects they used were a legitimate epilepsy hazard and I want to throw hands with whoever thought it was a good idea.
As for the other parts of side content I haven't mentioned yet, there's daily challenges to play through which is neat. You'll earn lums for participating, and you need a lot of those in order to unlock the various characters you can play as. There's tons of characters to unlock and swap through. They're mainly just variations of the same four models, and their movesets are identical, but it's a cool addition nonetheless. However, the million lum milestone to unlock all of them is absolutely ludicrous and I would not recommend going for it. You have better things to do with your life, I promise.
Music and visuals:
The music in this game is pretty good. The aforementioned music levels use charming covers of licensed music which is tons of fun.
The visuals are very awesome with a creative art style and great animation. Characters and environments are varied and dynamic. It's all very polished.
Conclusion:
Rayman Legends is a 2D platformer that sticks to its core but isn't afraid to expand on it in some fun ways. It's got tons of great levels, a good amount of challenge (usually), and well-made presentation. I'd definitely recommend this game if you're a fan of platformers and/or looking for something to play with friends. It's a simple, good time.
Although I never owned this game, I did play this co-op with friends while I was at work at GameStop. It was an absolute blast! One of my favorite aspects of the game are the musical levels, I'm a sucker for any game that has rhythm in it. It was one of those games we played on the switch while at work to show off the co-op capabilities. So it was a decent memory. If I owned it and played more of it it probably rate a little bit higher. Not to mention the graphics and the gameplay itself is also phenomenal. High recommendation for anyone who wants to play a co-op