Rayman Legends is a work of art and one of the most criminally overlooked games ever made. Not underrated, overlooked. Everyone who played this game from critics to casual fans has mountainous praise for it, but Rayman has been hugely irrelevant since due to Ubisoft's neglect of the IP and thus it's become somewhat of an afterthought.
Rayman Legends is so creative and so unique. There are so many original ideas in this game but it doesn't get lost in them, they all serve the core purpose of 2D platforming. Even the water levels are gorgeous, control well and don't even have you spending that much time in the water - the world in which they're prominently featured is a James Bond super spy-themed series of levels where you spend as much time infiltrating an underwater base as you do swimming.
There's an entire world based around food but ALSO based around Día de los Muertos (the Mexican Day of the Dead) where you jump through giant falling fruit whilst also fighting off Sombrero'd skeletons, it's insane. You've never seen theming like this in a 2D platformer before.
Whilst pulling off some of the most artistically creative theming you've ever seen, it also manages to be a great game at its core. Rayman controls beautifully, he has a great moveset and sense of momentum and the levels are designed as such that you can blast through them like it's a 2D Sonic if you get good enough. Its difficulty scales harshly, but fairly. This game gets HARD towards the end, but never unfair, and a generous checkpoint system encourages you to keep trying since you won't be losing a lot of progress.
Just play this game. It's cheap on Steam nowadays, and it was re-released on Switch. It's so good, such a masterful work of art and it's a shame I don't hear its name thrown around more in the GOAT conversations like I think it deserves.
Rayman Legends is so creative and so unique. There are so many original ideas in this game but it doesn't get lost in them, they all serve the core purpose of 2D platforming. Even the water levels are gorgeous, control well and don't even have you spending that much time in the water - the world in which they're prominently featured is a James Bond super spy-themed series of levels where you spend as much time infiltrating an underwater base as you do swimming.
There's an entire world based around food but ALSO based around Día de los Muertos (the Mexican Day of the Dead) where you jump through giant falling fruit whilst also fighting off Sombrero'd skeletons, it's insane. You've never seen theming like this in a 2D platformer before.
Whilst pulling off some of the most artistically creative theming you've ever seen, it also manages to be a great game at its core. Rayman controls beautifully, he has a great moveset and sense of momentum and the levels are designed as such that you can blast through them like it's a 2D Sonic if you get good enough. Its difficulty scales harshly, but fairly. This game gets HARD towards the end, but never unfair, and a generous checkpoint system encourages you to keep trying since you won't be losing a lot of progress.
Just play this game. It's cheap on Steam nowadays, and it was re-released on Switch. It's so good, such a masterful work of art and it's a shame I don't hear its name thrown around more in the GOAT conversations like I think it deserves.