Rayman Legends

Last weekend I spent about an hour and a half messing around with Rayman Legends. I hardly played any more of Rayman Legends since then, and there’s a decent chance I might not ever come back and finish it, but I figured I’d type up a brief post with some thoughts on my short time with the game. Because I did not finish Rayman Legends today’s post will not be part of my Late to the Party series and I will not be scoring this game.

Like Valiant Hearts, Rayman Legends is a game created through the UbiArt Framework and has a very vibrant, cartoonish visual style. Unlike Valiant Hearts, however, Rayman Legends isn’t interested in giving you a history lesson or telling a compelling story. In fact, I really couldn’t tell you what the story of Rayman Legends is from my short time with the game, other than that a horde of monsters are causing trouble and it’s up to our hero Rayman to save the day by running from one end of each level to the other. Platforming in Rayman Legends works really well and new game mechanics were slowly but steadily introduced while I was playing it. One small criticism that some players might have of the gameplay is that the jumping feels a little floaty, but most players should be able to very quickly adapt to it. Level design is good, with a heavy emphasis on speed and timing in most areas but there are also a few hidden challenge rooms to be found when you slow down and do a bit of exploration. My personal favorite level that I played was a short one where all of my actions were synchronized with the level’s music, briefly turning Rayman Legends into something of a rhythm game. Outside of the main game there are also daily and weekly challenges that let you test your skill against other players, an interesting soccer-style mini game called Kung-Foot, and even a few bonus levels from Rayman Origins that you can unlock. Needless to say, there isn’t a lack of content in this game.

In spite of all these positive things I have to say about Rayman Legends, however, I somehow didn’t get hooked by it and I’ve not felt a particular urge to return to the game since I last played it. I can tell that this is a really good game, and from a quick look online I can see that it’s been very well reviewed, but it’s not for me, at least not right now. Rayman Legends is one of this month’s free games for PlayStation Plus subscribers, so if you have PlayStation Plus I’d say download the game and give it a chance. As for me I’ll keep Rayman Legends in my PS4’s game library just in case I one day decide to come back and finish it, and if I do I’ll publish a follow-up post with more thoughts on the game.