VideoGame What a platformer
Rayman Legends is the sequel to Rayman Origins, and is about Rayman and his friends defeating a group of evil wizards. Not much in the story department there, although that can be attributed to the lack of dialogue from the characters.
But despite that, Rayman Legends is a very solid game. the graphics are really great, with each part of this wacky world standing out in a unique way. But even with story and graphics aside, the game provides an extensive amount of content, meaning a 100% completion will take a while, and the gameplay is incredibly smooth.
The various levels, especially the rhythm levels, are very well designed, and are created in such a way that you naturally get into the flow of things and start making moves almost on instinct. Combine this with the aforementioned smooth gameplay, and you get a very enjoyable experience.
If you don't understand what I mean when I say "flow", imagine the Flow Combat System from the Batman Arkham series, or in Mario, where you constantly land jump after jump without getting hit. A very enjoyable feeling to have when you're playing a platformer.
The other half of the gameplay involves controlling a little magic... thing named Murphy to control the environment as a character is on autopilot. These segments are also alot of fun, and can lead to the same amount of enjoyable flow that you get from platforming.
To summarize, Rayman Legends is a fun, flowing platformer. It has a ton of unlockable stuff, and great enough control that you won't find it boring trying to be a completionist. If you love a good platforming game, its definitely worth your time.
VideoGame A Brilliant But Disjointed Sequel
As someone who enjoyed Rayman Origins, despite it being a bit on the light side, I was excited at the news of Legends. And once I was able to get my hands on it, I played through the sucker and enjoyed it immensely. However, I couldn't help but feel there were some bits that seemed a bit lacking.
First of all, the controls remain as buttery smooth as they did in Origins and they even added a new gameplay feature with the use of Murphy and it blends in fairly well. The game also continues to be reliably funny, as the animations and actions of the characters are quite humorous.The game also looks beautiful, with gorgeously rendered characters and really nice lighting. Which pains me to say that the aesthetics of the levels are kinda dull. Not dull in the sense of details, as those are great, but just the colors. From the monochromatic greens of the Toad chapter to the overall darks of the undersea level, it just kinda felt underwhelming compared to all the bright and varied colors of Origins.
The level design is also something I felt was lacking. While Origins never drew away from its platform intensive level design that was all built around getting past obstacles using seamless skills you acquired, Legends tends to focus more on level gimmicks than platforming, making some of the levels feel a bit shallow. And while the levels are all based around some fun ideas for settings, the severe lack of story makes them pretty dang disjointed. And I know some people could care less about what little story the game has, as Origins had just about as much, but it feels more apparent here and by the end I couldn't help but feel it was a fruitless endeavor.
However, don't take from my criticisms that Rayman Legends is not a good game, as it most certainly is. On its own, it's a fantastic platformer that looks great, plays great and provides a great experience. As a followup to the more tightly woven and coherent Origins, I just feel it falls just a smidgen short.