YMMV / Rayman Legends

• Awesome Music: The music levels and their unique song covers, which includes a mariachi remix of "Eye of the Tiger" and a surf rock version of "Woo Hoo" by 5678 (used in Vonage commercials and Kill Bill.)
  • The Infinite Tower/The Tower of Babel, which doubles as the main theme.
  • The whole soundtrack is just an orchestral tour de force for Christophe Héral and Billy Martin.
• Base-Breaking Character: Barbara, when she was first revealed. Some found her cool, others felt that a barbarian girl is somehow unfitting in the Rayman setting (and yet the nymphs, who are likewise human-looking and even share some of the same designs, but didn't seem to get any complaints) and already considered her The Scrappy. This reaction died down after Legends was released and Barbara ended up being received fairly well, to the point where the Mobile Phone Game, Rayman Adventures, had her starring alongside Rayman right out the gate, as opposed to the usual pairing of Rayman and Globox (though both Globox and the Teensies are in the game as unlockable characters).
• Best Boss Ever: Fans generally agree that the Mechanical Dragon’s the best boss in the game, a fun and challenging battle accompanied by what is also usually considered the best boss theme in the game as well.
• Best Level Ever:
  • The musical levels are generally considered a great idea, despite not being especially hard for most of them (opinions are a tad more mixed on the 8-bit versions of said levels…)
  • Spoiled Rotten, a very fun and uniquely designed level with a surprisingly nice example of Scenery Gorn that also gives relief from the otherwise very Murfy-heavy World 3.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Even by the series standards, the part at the end of "Shields Up... and Down", where Zeus randomly shows up and tries to kill you with his lightning finger. Never to be seen again. It's kinda jarring.
• Broken Base:
  • The game's initial Wii U exclusivity brought about quite a bit of backlash about having to buy a new console just to play the sequel to a multiplatform game. However, when ZombiU bombed, Ubisoft delayed this game for the sake of making it multiplatform, to the joy of the previous group and the anger of Wii U owners who now had even longer for a game that was already delayed once.
  • Beyond the issues of exclusivity and delays, there's also a split between those who enjoy the Wii U version vs. the other versions, specifically their handling of the Murfy sections in single-player. On the Wii U version, the AI takes control of Rayman and you use the touchscreen to have Murfy manipulate the level to enable the AI's progress. In all of the other versions, the player retains control of Rayman, and can press a designated Context-Sensitive Button to have Murfy do various actions. Fans of the Wii U version argue that it was the way the game was originally meant to be played back when it was a Wii U exclusive and makes the Murfy sections more interactive since the touchscreen gives you more ways to manipulate him, while fans of the other versions argue that the Wii U version makes these sections painfully slow due to the Artificial Stupidity controlling Rayman, and constitute Gameplay Derailment that changes the game from platformer to mildly challenging puzzle game.
  • Fans are divided about the last world "Livid Dead Party" and its Interface Screw levels: interesting experience or lazy Hard Mode Filler with Fake Difficulty?
• Critical Dissonance: Most reviews agree that the game outmatches Rayman Origins, which was already a beloved game. To elaborate, it has a wider choice of character designs, more levels, more special features, various different bosses, worldwide challenges, and a beautiful art style. While still keeping the breezy feel of its predecessor. Meanwhile, fans are more split, with some seeing it as little more than a Mission-Pack Sequel that fails to bring much new to the table.
• Disappointing Last Level:
  • Many who unlocked the final world "Livid Dead Party" were disappointed to find that instead of any equivalent to Origins' Land of the Livid Dead, its levels were just retreads of previous musical levels with Interface Screw added for some Fake Difficulty.
  • Olympus Maximus feels very uninspired compared to the last two worlds, and carrying little variation in level design outside of Amazing Maze. And then it's all topped off with a quite poorly designed final boss fight.
• Good Bad Bugs: For the Wii U version, if one is using the Gamepad and sitting at a distance where the Wii U fights to stay connected, they may get lucky in the "fall forever' challenges and have obstacles not be truly solid and Teleport Spam down quickly. Meaning one can easily go from a bronze rating to one of the top in gold.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The Wii U and Switch version of Legends has unlockable Mario and Luigi costumes for Rayman and Globox respectively. This becomes even more amusing when one remembers that in Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc, Globox was voiced by John Leguizamo, who previously played Luigi in the infamous live-action Mario film.
  • Rayman was already dressed as Sam Fisher in a Happy New Year 2005 video from Ubisoft. The costume is available in this game.
• Ho Yay: King and Queen Teensies wink at your character and give him/her a heart when rescued, regardless if you're playing as a male or a female.
• Mis-blamed: Some claimed that was Nintendo's fault that the game hosts touchscreen controls, saying that they want to "sabotage" Rayman and Ubisoft, despite the fact that A. Nintendo themselves said that they weren't forcing any developers to use the Wii U's GamePad and B. the Vita version also uses the touchscreen controls. Ironically, the Wii U version remains the highest-reviewed version of the game according to Metacritic.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • The boss of Olympus Maximus. It's a giant floating cloud of the Dark Creatures from previous levels, which shape into the form of a giant hand, two flying demons, and then a giant floating demon. The music is also very dark and low key, unlike most of the music in the game.
  • Heck the little fuzzballs themselves. They follow whatever direction you're going and there are sections you have to lure them into pits just to continue.
• Nintendo Hard: The Invasion levels. Having to go through the difficult courses is enough, but having to blaze through in under 40 seconds to get a gold cup becomes very difficult later on. Then, upon beating all the worlds, the Dark Rayman Invasions are unlocked. Have fun not only doing the above, but you're also chased by a shadow that copies your movements and kills you upon contact. Sometimes, the Dark Rayman Invasions require you to kill enemies in order to proceed, in addition to the strict time limit.
• Padding: Come the endgame, and the game starts to pad itself to ludicrous degrees. The final world, "Livid Dead Party", almost entirely consists of rehashes of the various worlds with obnoxious video filters slapped on, and unlocking the last character basically requires you to do a near-perfect run on every single level in the game. And that's without mentioning that at least a third of the game (40 out of 120 levels and 260 out of 700 Teensies) is composed of levels from the previous game with little to no change.
• Presumed Flop: The game sold poorly on launch due to it being delayed right before release and being released two weeks before Grand Theft Auto V and ultimately became a Franchise Killer. However sales steadily picked up over time, selling 1 million by 2014, and almost 5 million by 2019, ultimately averting it's reputation as a sales flop.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • The Murphy sections, as the game was originally a Wii U only title and was meant to be used with the Gamepad. On other systems, you don't have this luxury and have to press buttons on the controller, which can be quite annoying in a few areas. This is obviously ignoring the Play Station Vita version as well the Nintendo Switch rerelease which carry over the touch-screen functionality of the Wii U version (you can even use the rear pad for the former). However, those players are split on the mechanic as, unless you're playing multiplayer, you have to play as Murfy instead of the standard playstyle.
  • The interface screws in the 8-bit editions of the musical levels. Literally their only purpose is to artificially make platforming harder.
• Sequel Difficulty Drop: The check points are more frequent than in the previous game and cups are easier to get than the medals. Some levels in Back to Origins are easier, notoriously the Tricky Treasure levels. Though some players contend that this is justified, as levels with little to no checkpoints are a form of fake difficulty.
• Sidetracked by the Gold Saucer: The challenge mode is addictive, even launched before the full game did on the Wii U.
• Spiritual Licensee: This, alongside the prequel, are considered some of the best Sonic the Hedgehog games ever made.
• That One Achievement:
  • "Sooo Rich!" ("Millionnaire!" on Vita) and "Totally Awesome" ("Aweso me!" [sic] on Vita), which require earning 1 million Lums and reaching the final level of Awesomeness, respectively. With challenges being a Play Every Day mode, they require checking in on challenges for months to get.
  • Console versions of the game have achievements/trophies for getting a bronze, silver and gold rank in a challenge mode. The Vita version doesn't have those, but it does have a trophy for getting a diamond rank, which is awarded to the top 1% of a challenge's leaderboards. With the low player count induced by the Vita's end-of-life Cult Classic handheld status^note by the end of 2020, you'll find about less than 200 players on a weekly challenge, you better become number one at challenges if you covet that trophy. That, or pray for an extremely rare glitched Murfy's Dungeon challenge in which every player dies at the exact same score thus giving you a tangible goal for the trophy because everyone will be sharing the top spot of the leaderboard but even then, the challenge still is harder than anything else the main game has thrown at you.
• That One Boss:
  • The Giant Luchador of Fiesta de los Muertos. His boss fight is Platform Hell, followed by Bullet Hell, then Platform AND Bullet Hell.
  • The Cloud of Darkness of Olympus Maximus has three different forms, all of which are difficult to avoid and need to have fists thrown at them repeatedly, which get harder as they're destroyed. The first phase is annoying enough, but then the second phase is fought in mid-air, has two different entities, and also two giant sawblades in mid-air. The third phase has a giant entity which is fought on three tiny platforms in mid-air. At least it has no attacks other than Collision Damage, but even then it's nasty.
• That One Level:
  • "Up, Up and Escape!" has some of the most precise jumps needed in the game, and there are no check points.
  • "Invaded Infiltration Station" is this as well, with zero check points and zero mercy, especially if you are going for gold cup.
  • And then there's "Invaded Amazing Maze", which has an extremely tight time limit and needs near perfection in terms of jumps.
  • A few levels in "20,000 Lums Under the Sea" are surprisingly unforgiving when it comes to the gold Lum medal. "The Mysterious Floating Island" in particular has just barely enough Lums for Gold, even including all the Teensies.
  • The same goes for "Murray of the Deep" from "Back to Origins". There is only barely enough Lums for the Gold trophy, which pretty much means that you must flawlessly acquire the maximum amount of available Lums during the beginning of the level, and then make sure to lose as few Lums as possible while running away from the giant worms. And the worst part? There are absolutely no checkpoints, except right before the boss. Which means that yes, one mistake while running away from the worms means that you must again painstakingly acquire the Lums during the beginning, and only then try again.
  • Living. Dead. Party. Apart from the very first stage, "Grannies World Tour", which is no worse than any of the other standard music levels, the entire world consists of retreads of the previous Music Levels from the other worlds played with 8-bit music effects. These levels are notorious for their addition of Fake Difficulty to the already challenging format of the original levels: not only are there are no hearts to be had, but now all checkpoints are removed and players must replay from the start if they mess up and, worst of all each level has its own unique graphical interference that gets worse the deeper into the level the player gets. The very final stage, "Grannies World Tour, 8-Bit" has every single Interface Screw in sequence, including an all-new visual impediment where the level gets divided into increasingly smaller multiple screens. Getting to the end of these stages is maddening, and getting all three Teensies along the way is even worse.
• That One Sidequest:
  • Getting 100% Completion in this game is probably the hardest it's been in the series since the original 1995 game. Unlocking all of the bonus levels and the final unlockable character requires you to do a near perfect run of all 120 levels of the game. Besides just being very tedious (depending on how well you did on the levels in the first try, it can mean playing more than half of the games levels all over again), some of the Lum requirements can get very tight (particularly in a few of the "20,000 Lums Under The Sea" levels) and some of the Teensies are easy to miss or just hard to reach in the later levels (particularly the later Invasion paintings).
  • Unlocking all of the other extra characters, which requires you to collect a total of 1,000,000 Lums. While Lums aren't hard to grind for in the game (particularly if you play the Challenges), it'll still take you an agonizingly long time to reach that goal. Thankfully, this part of the game is completely optional.
• Ugly Cute: The creatures.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The Epic Trailer.