Rayman Legends is an example of a game that will never age. There's a beautiful painterly art style to everything with backdrops that look like they were taken straight from the concept art. The music is incredibly unique and varied, and the gameplay, though introduced with Origins, is very satisfying and quick.
Lots of my memories with this game has kinda left me since first playing it back in 2013. It's crazy to think it has been 11 years since it first released, and even crazier is the fact that Origins had only released 2 years prior. While I think Origins still holds up as well, I think the art style with the characters, doesn't seamlessly integrate with the environments. Don't get me wrong, I think this was a deliberate choice, in order to make the interactive elements and characters stand out from the background. But I believe this choice hindered the art style, making looking back at Origins feel almost a little dated. For a while throughout my life I vastly preferred the cartoony cel shaded characters of Origins, but my mind has changed.
Disregarding my feelings on the art style, Legends isn't just all style and no substance. Legends has a meaty main game where collecting every Teensie and getting enough lums has you looking through every nook and cranny in the game. There's a lot of challenge to this, but not too much to where I was frustrated. Each character has a moveset of standing and running punches and kicks, with the running punch almost acting like a roll attack from Donkey Kong Country, wherein you are thrust forward with momentum after using it. This is a very "risk or reward" type of move; sometimes you want to use it to get faster or carry your momentum through a jump, which the game encourages, but other times you might use it and not be aware of the danger that is just a few feet ahead. There's also an expected ground pound move, but it can destroy enemies within a short radius, which helps if you hadn't have aimed right on top of an enemy.
What I think really carries the movement in this game is the animations. Rayman and friends feel like they're almost like a slingshot. One example of this is when you're at top speed, you can quickly turn around after immediately using a dash attack (Running punch), which causes Rayman to not lose his momentum from turning around, which is something I found out very late into this game. The animations and the length of them allow the characters to feel weighty and natural. One thing I think is not really used in conjunction with the main moveset and this philosophy of "speed" is the glide, or Rayman's helicopter hair. You tend to lose all momentum here, which I think is purposeful for sections that have wind elements or sections where you are expected to carefully maneuver through the air. But I think they could've done a bit more with the glide without making it too overpowered.
Something that really stood out to me in this game is just the amount of content. You're constantly bombarded with new levels to play, and throughout the game you can unlock "Back to Origins" levels which is basically just that: levels brought over and touched up from Origins. Not every level is included here, but it just about is. There's 5 worlds with 8 levels each, and each level has a few tweaks with enemy placement and such. I didn't want to bother with this mode, since I want to go back and replay Origins here soon, but damn this is such a cool option for those who maybe missed out on Origins, and one that I'm still shocked was included.
There's a plethora of unlockable costumes, unlockable stages, and creatures to collect that increase your Lum count (which you will need if you want all the costumes, dear god). Included in the Switch version is "Murphy's touch" which is pretty much just a bundle of levels that took advantage of the wii u gamepad in fun ways, that you weren't able to play in other ports, due to there being no touch screen. Kinda a weird addition, since the main game includes a perfectly usable button prompt version of Murphy throughout the game, but I'm cool with it being an option I guess.
Something that I know will stick with me for months after replaying this is the music levels, in which the game almost becomes an autorunner with button presses timed with the music. I think most everyone remembers the heavily marketed "Black Betty" level, which is really good, depending on if you like the song or not (its an ok song). But I truly forgot about the remixes and new songs included with later music levels. These levels were so satisfying and including them at the end of a world really felt like a reward after getting through tough levels. There's also 8-bit versions of some of these levels after getting about 400 Teensies, and these were fairly difficult with screen interruptions that varied depending on the song. I loved these levels because they weren't too difficult and they provided a unique challenge, being that you had to almost rely on the music more than the visuals at times. There are also probably some of the most difficult levels in the game, which are time attack challenges. These are fairly manageable but I would be lying if some of them weren't very tight with the gold trophy requirements.
I think my only main complaint with this game is the hub world. The paintings and the vibe is a neat idea, and I dig how it implements with the levels, but I think using paintings for the rest of the modes and for the costume selection makes it a little tiresome to navigate. I kept thinking to myself, "why couldn't they have relegated costumes to a menu, where you can access it at any point"? But I suppose that's a minor nitpick. I would have just rather preferred a linear world map or something of the sort that gives me a sense of how much progress I have made.
Needless to say I think if someone wants to get into Rayman games this is probably one of the most accessible with it being on near every platform at this point, and it's very cheap. You won't regret it!
Lots of my memories with this game has kinda left me since first playing it back in 2013. It's crazy to think it has been 11 years since it first released, and even crazier is the fact that Origins had only released 2 years prior. While I think Origins still holds up as well, I think the art style with the characters, doesn't seamlessly integrate with the environments. Don't get me wrong, I think this was a deliberate choice, in order to make the interactive elements and characters stand out from the background. But I believe this choice hindered the art style, making looking back at Origins feel almost a little dated. For a while throughout my life I vastly preferred the cartoony cel shaded characters of Origins, but my mind has changed.
Disregarding my feelings on the art style, Legends isn't just all style and no substance. Legends has a meaty main game where collecting every Teensie and getting enough lums has you looking through every nook and cranny in the game. There's a lot of challenge to this, but not too much to where I was frustrated. Each character has a moveset of standing and running punches and kicks, with the running punch almost acting like a roll attack from Donkey Kong Country, wherein you are thrust forward with momentum after using it. This is a very "risk or reward" type of move; sometimes you want to use it to get faster or carry your momentum through a jump, which the game encourages, but other times you might use it and not be aware of the danger that is just a few feet ahead. There's also an expected ground pound move, but it can destroy enemies within a short radius, which helps if you hadn't have aimed right on top of an enemy.
What I think really carries the movement in this game is the animations. Rayman and friends feel like they're almost like a slingshot. One example of this is when you're at top speed, you can quickly turn around after immediately using a dash attack (Running punch), which causes Rayman to not lose his momentum from turning around, which is something I found out very late into this game. The animations and the length of them allow the characters to feel weighty and natural. One thing I think is not really used in conjunction with the main moveset and this philosophy of "speed" is the glide, or Rayman's helicopter hair. You tend to lose all momentum here, which I think is purposeful for sections that have wind elements or sections where you are expected to carefully maneuver through the air. But I think they could've done a bit more with the glide without making it too overpowered.
Something that really stood out to me in this game is just the amount of content. You're constantly bombarded with new levels to play, and throughout the game you can unlock "Back to Origins" levels which is basically just that: levels brought over and touched up from Origins. Not every level is included here, but it just about is. There's 5 worlds with 8 levels each, and each level has a few tweaks with enemy placement and such. I didn't want to bother with this mode, since I want to go back and replay Origins here soon, but damn this is such a cool option for those who maybe missed out on Origins, and one that I'm still shocked was included.
There's a plethora of unlockable costumes, unlockable stages, and creatures to collect that increase your Lum count (which you will need if you want all the costumes, dear god). Included in the Switch version is "Murphy's touch" which is pretty much just a bundle of levels that took advantage of the wii u gamepad in fun ways, that you weren't able to play in other ports, due to there being no touch screen. Kinda a weird addition, since the main game includes a perfectly usable button prompt version of Murphy throughout the game, but I'm cool with it being an option I guess.
Something that I know will stick with me for months after replaying this is the music levels, in which the game almost becomes an autorunner with button presses timed with the music. I think most everyone remembers the heavily marketed "Black Betty" level, which is really good, depending on if you like the song or not (its an ok song). But I truly forgot about the remixes and new songs included with later music levels. These levels were so satisfying and including them at the end of a world really felt like a reward after getting through tough levels. There's also 8-bit versions of some of these levels after getting about 400 Teensies, and these were fairly difficult with screen interruptions that varied depending on the song. I loved these levels because they weren't too difficult and they provided a unique challenge, being that you had to almost rely on the music more than the visuals at times. There are also probably some of the most difficult levels in the game, which are time attack challenges. These are fairly manageable but I would be lying if some of them weren't very tight with the gold trophy requirements.
I think my only main complaint with this game is the hub world. The paintings and the vibe is a neat idea, and I dig how it implements with the levels, but I think using paintings for the rest of the modes and for the costume selection makes it a little tiresome to navigate. I kept thinking to myself, "why couldn't they have relegated costumes to a menu, where you can access it at any point"? But I suppose that's a minor nitpick. I would have just rather preferred a linear world map or something of the sort that gives me a sense of how much progress I have made.
Needless to say I think if someone wants to get into Rayman games this is probably one of the most accessible with it being on near every platform at this point, and it's very cheap. You won't regret it!