Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

10 Hours or Less

The Bottom Line:

"Amazing"

What a generation this has been. Of all the things that took over during the Wii/PS3/360 generation: HD graphics, massive online networks, motion controls, the one that surprised me was the glorious return of platformers, especially the 2D variety. It's hard to say what happened, perhaps nostalgic older gamers missing side scrolling adventures, maybe a market oversaturated with brown/gray FPSes or maybe the massive success of New Super Mario Bros. Wii showed the industry that yeah, there is a market for old school 2D sidescrolling platformers with wacky characters.

Rayman was one of said characters who disappeared during the great platformer drought of the early '00s not having the super populairity of a Mario or Ratchet to stay afloat during what I call "the time of great sorrow." (I love platformers, hate FPSes) Even worse despite having the sleeper hit of the Wii launch, Rayman found his spotlight stolen but those Raving Rabbids, but now he is finally back and gets a game to call his own free of screaming bunnies. Originally this was planned as a download only title for the HD consoles but my guess is Ubisoft saw the backlash of Sonic 4 episode 1 being a download only, episodic thing and opted to make this a full disc release and rightly so. No one wants to buy a game in "pieces" and NSMBWii proved you can sell a 2D sidescroller as a full disc.

Despite the title, this really isn't an "origin" story but it is a throwback to Rayman's first titled on the PS1, a sidescrolling adventure. Rayman and his pals are sleeping rather loudly enough to annoy dark creatures beneath the ground who rise up to wreak havoc on Rayman's bizzare world so Ray along with a Globox and two other er um "things" team up on a wild adventure to I guess save their world from baddies. Hey if you're looking for any sort of deep story, then go play Final Fantasy XIII-2.

Following the trend of games like Little Big Planet, Kirby's Return to Dreamland and New Super Mario Bros. Wii in that it's a four player side scrolling co-op adventure. You run, stomp, smack, swim and bounce through over 60 amazing levels. In various levels you save these rather busty fairies who grant you new abilities like flight, swimming, etc. Then you can return to past stages and use abilities to try to get as many glowing bugs (this game's equivalent of coins) and gathering pink balloons that unlock other playable characters and costumes. Also you unlock special treasure chest chase stages that get you these glowing red teeth to give to a grim reaper though I have yet to get all these to see what this eventually leads to. Also after every stage is finished, there's a time trial mode where you have to get through the stage as fast as possible, so there is a lot of content to keep you busy if you're going for 100% completion.

To add some variety to the run and jump platforming, the end of each area switches up to a sidescrolling shooter where you ride a giant mosquito usually ending with a Gradius style boss fight and these prove just as challenging.

Visually the game is gorgeous. The visuals are like an illustration from a graphic novel and Rayman's world is really weird and surreal. While the first world is a pretty standard jungle the next level is a music themed level based around the Austrialian Dijeridos followed but an ice level where you jump on watermelons and talking forks then fall into a firey Mexican kitchen. Seriously someone had to be on drugs when they designed this. The music is also a ton of fun and while no voice acting, the wacky sound effects fit the tone perfectly.

Honestly I can't find a bad thing to say about this game. It has amazing level design, it's addictively fun, great visuals, awesome soundtrack and spot on controls unless you don't like sidescrolling platformers or don't like wacky surreal games, there's no way you should miss this.