Soapbox options allow our particular person writers and contributors to voice their opinions on sizzling subjects and random stuff they have been chewing over. Immediately, Francisco shares his love of Rayman Legends because it celebrates its tenth anniversary — but in addition laments that it could have been a sufferer of its personal success…
I’ve all the time had a delicate spot for Rayman. Whereas Nintendo and Uncommon duked it out for the N64’s platformer crown, I had no regrets about ignoring Tremendous Mario 64, Donkey Kong 64, and Banjo-Kazooie to helicopter my method by The Glade of Desires’ robotic pirate dystopia in Rayman 2: The Nice Escape.
Within the years that adopted, I used to be crestfallen to see Rayman’s undeserved fall from grace — not as soon as, however twice. The primary time was after the marginally disappointing Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc, after which he was deserted as Ubisoft’s family-friendly mascot, and was then brutally changed by the Wii’s Rayman Raving Rabbids. However then as a courageous new world of platforming — each HD and 2D — was ushered in by indie darling Braid and puzzle platformer Trine, Rayman was welcomed again to the world.
2011’s Rayman Origins was an excellent return to kind, in addition to a ravishing throwback to the collection’ 2D roots. Michel Ancel and his skilled Ubisoft Montpellier staff — the identical builders now engaged on Prince of Persia: The Misplaced Crown — schooled the indie upstarts with their bustling ranges and plush, painterly backdrops.
Two years later in August 2013 got here Rayman Legends, the Wii U follow-up so good it merely blew my thoughts. All the pieces Origins did beautifully, Legends did higher.
Don’t Name It A Comeback
Rayman, Globox, the Teensies and crew had been deservedly again within the limelight, they usually’d by no means seemed higher. Rayman Legends has merely sensational visuals throughout its six worlds, and every stage appears like French surrealist cartoons delivered to life. Accessing every stage by a portrait gallery, that Mario 64 nod was additionally a testomony to the skilled craft and creativeness that made every stage a murals.
Gamers of the Swap model are effectively conscious that Rayman Legends: Definitive Version totally deserves its spot on our checklist of probably the most stunning Swap video games in addition to being among the best 2D platformers on the console. You would body any second from this recreation, with its watercolour backgrounds and comedian e-book environmental particulars, and dangle it on a wall to show that two-dimensional doesn’t need to imply flat.
Even at this time, the sport’s shapeshifting environments stay a rollercoaster of spectacle and crafty surprises. Nathan Drake would die for its virtuoso setpieces, Ubisoft making use of Naughty Canine’s aptitude for the dramatic sequences to the 2D platformer with exhilarating panache.
All of the set dressing on the planet wouldn’t matter a jot if the sport by no means imbued Rayman, Globox, Barbara or the Teensies with a way of springing motion, delicate weight and exact momentum. Rayman tears by ranges, his scurrying steps elevate puffs of mud, and he pleasingly arches right into a somersault on the peak of every bounding leap. At instances he reaches a tempo nearly matching Sonic’s rocket-speed earlier than these clunky yellow sneakers come to a chic halt.
And it’s all tied along with a rollicking soundtrack that by no means fails to shock with its unending stream of eclectic devices. Add in a way of bodily comedy Charlie Chaplin could be happy with, and it combines into a busy good-time occasion environment the Rabbids merely can’t match.
Hold On Operating
Ubisoft borrowed quite a lot of concepts from pared-back autorunners of the time like Bit.Journey Runner with Rayman Legends’ music ranges. In these, all you do is bounce and punch to lusciously rearranged covers of standard songs as you tear by elaborately staged obstacles at breakneck pace.
Identical to in Cadence of Hyrule, you’re inspired to lose your self to the beat and faucet alongside to the rhythm; the second while you grow to be one with the music and are sucked into your environment is just spellbinding. It was an unimaginably satisfying thrill, and I nonetheless get a shiver reliving the melodious tinkling whereas scooping up rising scales of Lums, or the way in which a guitar solo anticipates you smashing by a precarious tower of enemies. These songs and their spectacular environment get higher and higher as you dash by a heavy steel fortress siege in Fortress Rock, or by dungeons and volcanic chambers away from hovering dragons in Dragon Slayer.
Should you requested me what Rayman has in widespread with Sylvester Stallone earlier than 2013, aside from a penchant for fixing their troubles with a punch, I’d draw a clean. However now they’ve one factor in widespread: Survivor’s ‘Eye of the Tiger’.
Rayman Legend’s model was the soundtrack to considered one of my prime 10 gaming moments, with Mariachi Insanity’s model of the long-lasting monitor as you race by a desert’s escalating hazards and away from a fiery inferno. You clatter by skeletons donning prime hats throughout fields of flowers to the strums of a Spanish guitar and the rasp of kazoos (who got here up with that kazoo solo?). It’s joyful, ludicrous nonsense that captures the sport’s wild, uninhibited spirit at its easiest.
Ex-exclusive
Rayman Legends wasn’t meant to be a multiplatform title – it was destined to be a Wii U unique till Ubisoft bought spooked over issues that the sport would not promote effectively sufficient on Nintendo’s console. Despite the fact that it did come to different platforms, the Wii U was designed with a fifth native multiplayer slot and the total suite of GamePad options with the grinning bug Murphy and his touch-control help.
No matter platform the sport got here to, Rayman Legends was a merely pleasant gem that wowed the critics — together with Nintendo Life, after all — and will have totally rehabilitated the ’90s “least cool” platforming hero. Should you ask me, the sport’s the joyous peak of a department of pure 2D platforming earlier than all of it went only a bit Metroid-y.
Nevertheless it was nearly as good because it ever bought for Rayman, Ubisoft foolishly determined that as a result of their big-nosed limbless hero didn’t promote as a lot because the grizzled Assassins Creeds and frat-house Far Crys of this world, his peculiar fantasy world stuffed with charming oddballs wasn’t value a brand new entry. Ten years later, I’m nonetheless heartbroken about it. His look within the third Mario + Rabbids DLC ought to have given followers a spark of hope for the character’s return forward of his thirtieth birthday in 2025, however as an alternative, he nonetheless appears like an afterthought.
The identical succesful staff is now entrusted with reviving one other beloved property in Prince of Persia. Ubisoft Montpellier have already confirmed their expertise for reinvention, I’m positive what they’re engaged on is ready to blow my thoughts but once more. Simply spare a thought for us dissatisfied Rayman followers. We loved our Rayman-issance whereas it lasted; benefit from the Prince of Persurgence when you can.
Do you’re keen on Rayman Legends? Do you wish to see a direct sequel to it? Be part of us in The Glade of Desires within the feedback.