Written by: Steven Setser

It’s no surprise that I loved Rayman Origins when I bought it over the summer. I grew up playing Sonic the Hedgehog, so I’m naturally good at platformers. I never enjoyed the Rayman series until Origins though. When Rayman Legends announced that it would be multi-console instead of Wii U exclusive, I was excited. However, could the new Rayman be better than his last adventure?

The story is really light. Rayman, Globox and the Teensies have been sleeping for about a century. The world has been thrown into a nightmare, and Murfy must wake Rayman and the crew up to save the world. They must also rescue the 10 captured princesses, all of which are new playable characters, and my personal player of choice.

The gameplay is what makes this game so great. The physics take a little getting used to since they are slightly different from Origins. You can glide, punch, run up walls, slide and you even have this new short-distance rolling attack, which I never found myself using, but it’s still cool to look at.

Occasionally, you will get to a puzzle in which you have to play as your character and Murfy. On the Xbox 360 Murfy will move to a section that he can interact with, and he is controlled with the B button. Murfy will slide platforms to you, cut dangerous obstacles out of the way or even tickle giant enemies, leaving them vulnerable. However, while controlling Murfy you have to also keep your eyes on yourself, the level layout, and any of your friends playing. Sometimes this can get overwhelming if you are not careful.

When you start the game you are in a HUB world filled with paintings. You enter a level by jumping into these paintings, much like Super Mario 64. There are five different worlds with about 10 to 15 levels inside them. There is a bonus painting to unlock as well as a “Back to the Origins” painting. This world has remade levels from Rayman Origins.

New to the franchise are musical levels. No, you will not be singing, but the level is designed around the beat of a song. For example in Castle Rock, you will punch, jump and dodge attacks to the beat of Black Betty by Ram Jam. It is crazy fun, and I can’t wait for more of these kinds of levels in the future.

Now, most platformers are run from left to right and then it’s over. This is not the case in Legends. There are eight Teensies lost in each level as well as a secret king and queen that are in hidden doors. Once you collect enough, you will unlock timed stages in which you must rescue three Teensies in 40 seconds. There are 700 Teensies in total. Not only that, but if you collect enough Lums in each level, you are rewarded with a Lucky Ticket. These allow you to scratch off and win extra content for the game like new Origins levels or 10,000 Lums for unlocking character skins.

The game also features an online challenge mode. There are two daily challenges and two weekly challenges. These range from collecting a certain amount of Teensies in a set amount of time to running as long as you can in an area that slowly increases in difficulty.

The game also has a fun local multiplayer mini-game called Kung Foot. It is like soccer in which players must knock the ball into the opposite team’s goal. This is incredibly fun with four players!

When the trailer says it’s the biggest Rayman game ever, it is not lying! This game has loads of content and is rewarding for finding everything. This game also fixed most of the problems I had with the first game—the bosses. The bosses are really good in this game! Sometimes it can get overwhelming with everything on screen, but since there is no life counter, it’s ok. I give Rayman Legends a 10 out of 10. Rayman Legends is available now on Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U, PC and PS Vita.