Rayman Legends Review PS Vita

Rayman Legends was developed by Ubisoft Montpellier and is the 5th entry into the Rayman franchise. Originally announced as a Wii U exclusive Rayman Legends has made its way onto the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and now the PS Vita which is what I’m here to talk about today.

Our PS3 review of the game can be found here.

Rayman Legends picks up a century after Rayman Origins. The Bubble Dreamer’s nightmares have grown stronger over the last century so Murfy is sent to wake up Rayman and Globox to get them to help clear out the nightmares and rescue the kidnapped princesses. After hearing that the 10 princesses and the Teensies have been captured by the nightmares Rayman and Murfy set out on an adventure to stop the Bubble Dreamer’s nightmares once and for all.

Rayman Legends is a great example of how to do a platformer for the PS Vita. It manages to incorporate all the nifty features the PS Vita has to offer into a fun fast paced game.

Throughout Rayman Legends you will either play as Rayman or Murfy. Rayman can do his usual punches and kicks while hoping from wall to wall while Murfy is more of a touchscreen cursor. Rayman and Murfy will be collecting Teensies that have been captured and Lums, which are your points, throughout every stage.

When in control of Rayman you will be running through each level beating up nightmares while trying to save the Teensies. Playing as Rayman is the normal wall jumping, platforming type of game except when he gets power ups for certain levels like the ability to throw punches across the screen. The Rayman levels are all made very intricately and are a blast to play through, especially the musical levels which are some of my favorite in the game.

When your controlling Murfy Rayman Legends becomes a completely different game. Murfy is used like a cursor to open paths and guide Globox to the end of each section. Murfy can cut ropes, activate buttons, tickle bad guys, dig paths, turn knobs by tilting the Vita and collect things in the level to bring to Globox. The Murfy levels are also created amazingly and offer tons of enjoyment. The only problem I had with these sections was that since it was originally made for the Wii U and its second screen controller your finger tends to block your view on the Vita. Still, all the different ways Ubisoft found to use the touchscreen gives these sections of the game lots of variety.

Rayman Legends looks great on the Vita’s 5 inch OLED screen. Levels are bursting with colors of all different varieties. Underwater levels have dark blues and bright greens while other levels have a mixture of every color in the rainbow and then some. Everything on the screen pops making it hard to miss anything unless your not paying any attention. You would be hard pressed to find another Vita game that is as bright and colorful as Rayman Legends.

The controls in Rayman Legends are spot on. Every button press feels quick and responsive which is very important for this game. There are a lot of areas that require quick jump timing to get past. The touchscreen is very capable of handling all of Murfy’s needs. A single tap will make Murfy appear where you tap or you can slide your finger along the touchscreen to make him glide along the stage flawlessly.

 

Rayman Legends has good audio throughout most of the game. I say most of the game because for the most part the music is lack luster until you get to a musical level. The musical levels have you running as fast as you can away from something to popular songs that the developers have re-made for Rayman Legends. That first musical level is amazing and still my favorite stage in the game.

Online play in Rayman Legends consists of different levels you can challenge everyone on. Online challenges last a few days with everyone who plays getting put onto a leader board. You can go through as many times as you want to keep trying to do better and better. I unfortunately haven’t been able to get past a silver cup in the challenge mode yet. There is also an online soccer game called Kung Foot which is surprisingly fun when you can find someone else who wants to play it.

There are tons of unlockables to get in Rayman Legends. Each time you clear a whole stage, if you did well enough, you are given a scratch off ticket that could unlock a creature to add to your collection, give you some free lums or open a Rayman Origins level. You can also unlock new costumes for Rayman to wear by collecting lums and more challenges to attempt by beating stages and increasing your awesomeness level.

Currently the PS Vita version of Rayman Legends is missing some content in the form of Rayman Origins levels. These levels are going to be added in for free in an update in the near future.

Overall Rayman Legends is a great side scrolling platformer with a flaw here and there. The use off all the different Vita functions is great but the Murfy sections of the game can become a little annoying when you can’t see what’s going on because your finger is blocking the screen. Regardless if you have been looking for a fun platformer that has a ton of things to do your search ends right here.