The game’s difficulty isn’t relegated to just its boss battles. Once past the first world, the stages begin to truly challenge your abilities. It can be sweat inducing, and at the same time it’s rather satisfying to best a series of jumps that want to best you. However, there are a few stages and sections that require such strict timing with little to no checkpoints that momentum can grind to a halt. In those situations I was doing more yelling at the TV than having fun with what was playing on it. Thankfully those moments are few and you’re never forced to complete them to make progress, but a little leeway would have been appreciated.
If you’d rather yell at friends, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions support four player local, cooperative play. You can also compete against each other in a rather entertaining soccer mini-game and through daily and weekly leaderboard challenges. These are all quite fun, though I’m disappointed there’s still no online multiplayer for the core content.
It can’t be emphasized enough how much delight, even against a tide of curses when struck with a trying obstacle, is earned from Rayman Legends‘ charming presentation. Every stage is beautifully drawn and imbued with so much color and detail that makes even the most complexly rendered 3D game blush. And though it’s played in only two dimensions, the backgrounds are layered in such a way as to give them an impressive amount of depth.
It’s wonderfully expressive, a characteristic no more obvious than with its characters. Every animation and audio sample is worthy of a smile. My favorite examples of which are the playable warrior princesses, unlockable through special challenges, who laugh and grin mischievously as they run, jump and bash foes. The enemies are equally well-emoted. It’s impossible not to giggle at the parachuting toads – especially if you land atop them – or when battling a giant, rotund chicken. There’s a clear sense of love that went into crafting this game, and it is absolutely infectious.
Christophe Héral’s musical compositions share that honor. They range from cinematic and energetic to slow and tense, but they’re always catchy in the throat and give the game that much more life. As simple as it was, I never stopped wanting to shake hips to the festive victory beat of a successful gold run. The confetti and cute dance of my character didn’t help to prevent that impulse, either.
There’s an idiom that says lightning never strikes twice, but Rayman Legends is a perfect rebuttal. It is resplendent with charm and character, and delivers a huge variety of delightful, challenging content. If a game can be measured in how often you call over friends and family to the couch to take a look, then Rayman Legends is the ideal lightning rod.
Final verdict
9.5 out of 10
A copy of the game was provided by Ubisoft for the purpose of this review.
