Culture

Rating: 9.5/10

The gaming industry is currently fascinated with creating new and innovative new ways to play games. Don’t get me wrong – I am very excited about the discoveries being made, but such an attitude tends to imply that we have fully utilised the mechanics we currently have. Rayman Legends proves that this is not the case.

It is no longer the heyday of the platformer. The 90s were all about platformers (and it’s easy to see why when looking games like Crash Bandicoot and the original Rayman), but the genre lost popularity as 3D graphics became easier to render. However, Rayman Legends proves that while we now have technology capable of far more than side-scrolling, simple mechanics still have a place in this shiny new age of gaming.

Legends doesn’t have a complex story; in fact, its story could hardly be more simple. Bubble Dreamer the wizard has populated the world with evil creatures that have captured the adorable Teensies. It is the job of Rayman and his friends to save these little fellas and free the world of Bubble Dreamer’s evil. The world is broken up into various sub-worlds, each with its own theme and aesthetic, and Rayman must clear stages within these worlds by saving all the Teensies. The story, however, doesn’t really matter. What this game really emphasises is the experience.

Legends constantly finds new ways to make you smile, whether it is the outstanding design, the hilarious and quirky character animations, or just the sheer beauty of the layered 2.5-dimensional landscape coupled with the unique and triumphant soundtrack. All of these elements combine in each world’s final level, and these finales play like the most badass music videos you have ever seen. An example is “Castle Rock”: here, you run to a cover of the song “Black Betty” by Ram Jam, but your enemies are singing the lyrics in their own form of gibberish and all of the beats are synchronised to match your actions. Watch a video of this level at critic.co.nz/rayman – don’t worry about ruining it for yourself, because although the video is awesome, playing the level is an experience in itself.

In a number of ways, the game rewards you just for playing. My favourite is the “lucky scratch” system, in which you receive a scratchy card for certain levels of achievement. This card can then be scratched, rewarding you with one of many different items or experiences. If you are lucky you will receive an Origin painting which, when unlocked, allows you to play levels from the equally-awesome 2011 game, Rayman Origins. Rayman Legends is thus two games in one, but you enjoy the Rayman Origins levels all the more because you earned them.

As if that weren’t enough, the game also comes with a huge library of playable characters to unlock, a multiplayer platformer soccer game called Kung Foot, the ability to play the whole game co-op, and a challenge mode that is updated daily.

Rayman Legends is a game full of joy just waiting to be had, and it seems that there is no limit to what it has to offer. It is so exciting to see that even as we move into the next generation of gaming, we are still able to look back to our past and create amazing experiences using the expertise and knowledge gained from established mechanics.