Plot: What’s it about?
The Glade of Dreams has been invaded by horrific nightmares from The Bubble Dreamer, leaving all of the lovable Teensies imprisoned. While the situation seems grim, there is a glimmer of hope, as Rayman and his friends plan to push back the nightmares and take on The Bubble Dreamer. A sequel to the excellent Rayman Origins, Rayman Legends builds on that game’s foundation and improves upon it across the board. The same gorgeous visual style is implemented, but the sights are even grander here, with more polish and depth. The core game experience is about the same as well, a series of levels that tasks you to collect lums, free Teensies, and just plain survive. As you free more and more Teensies, you unlock new worlds to explore and this includes special levels that let you add new playable heroes to your roster. The lums allow you unlock even more heroes, so by the end of Legends, you have quite an impressive assortment of folks to play as. The in-level collectibles, extra heroes, and special challenge levels all combine to offer some great depth in terms of replay value. So even after you make it through the levels, chances are you’ll want to return to pick up any missed goodies.
I’ve spent a good amount of time with Rayman Legends and based on the unlocked content, I haven’t even scratched the surface on how much there is to do. I focused on collecting Teensies so that rescue levels (levels where you can unlock a new hero) would become available, but even so the roster is so deep, I’m not even close to completion. In addition to the numerous story based levels, you can unlock 40 Rayman Origins levels, take on daily & weekly challenges, and even have some goofy fun in the wild two vs. two take on soccer. While Rayman Legends has a cartoon inspired look, don’t think this is going to be a brisk walk in the park. The game is fair in terms of level design and mechanics, but it will push your platforming skills. If you’re a veteran of Origins, you’ll have a nice grasp of how it works, but even so, prepare to be challenged. That challenge is so well balanced though, you know how you failed the level and how to fix it, so failures never seem cheap or unfair. Most players will still get frustrated at times, but Legends is a well designed game that makes you earn each level’s finish, but it is so worth it. If you’ve played this on Xbox 360, you’ll find some bonus challenges, but the rest of the game is the same. Rayman Legends looks better than ever here however, so if you want the definitive version, this is what you want.
Video: How’s it look?
As I said above, Rayman Legends looks gorgeous. The game looked great on Xbox 360, but the visuals are even more eye catching in this version. The colors are so rich at times, they’re on the verge of bursting, but the hues always reflect the mood and tone of the levels. So some levels are bright and vivid, while others have a darker, shadow filled presence. This is just so polished, taking the already awesome visuals and getting that extra mile out of them. And while graphics aren’t always a primary concern, with a game this beautiful, the added polish adds a lot.
Audio: How’s it sound?
While perhaps not quite on the same level as the visuals, the sound design is excellent. The music is always fun and never gets on your nerves, which isn’t common in video games. As far as the non-musical elements, the main thing that comes to mind is how fun the design is and the attention to detail. None of the sound elements come off like filler whatsoever, each sound is perfect for what it does, no small feat. The audio is going to make you smile while you play, which honestly doesn’t happen that often, but Rayman Legends nails it.
