Rayman Legends Next-Gen Video Review

Rayman Legends is one of those games that we’ve talked about for hours here at GodisaGeek, but that’s because it’s a game that we can talk about for hours – all without ever feeling like we’re repeating ourselves. The inherent charm that the entire gameplay experience seems to exude never fails to impress us, and now it’s gone one step further.

Don’t get me wrong, the Xbox One version of Rayman Legends doesn’t bring too much extra to the table, but what it does do is manage to go even further with a game that was originally restricted to just a single console. There are many people who will have gone out to buy a Wii U for the sole reason of finally being able to get their hands on Rayman Legends as the only console it was being released on.

Then the game got delayed and people started to question whether bringing the title out on a single console was really going to be the best idea. It would appear that Ubisoft agreed, as it was soon announced that Rayman Legends would be making its way to every single console known to man. Ubisoft Montpellier have now gone one step even further and brought the armless wonder to the next-gen consoles.

With Rayman Legends now running on the next-gen hardware, you’d be forgiven for thinking that there’d be some kind of graphical upgrade, and if this was a video game using the more traditional 3D models, then you’d more than likely be correct. However, as Rayman Legends uses Ubisoft’s UbiArt engine (developed to render 2D images) there’s not much that the next-gen consoles, with their relatively beefed up specifications, could bring to the visual department. Apparently it’s had an upgrade though, and if you grilled me I could maybe admit that the colours are a little bit brighter, but there’s been no major changes in the graphics department. Which is probably all well and good as the game looked fantastic to begin with.

Where the next-gen versions of Rayman Legends really stand out is with the loading times, but this has been a blessing and a curse. We looked at the Xbox One version of the game, which was installed directly onto the hard drive, and so whenever Rayman entered a painting (the game’s way of entering into the individual levels) there would be a brief pause of maybe three to four seconds before you were in the level and playing as normal.

Now, I said this was a blessing and a curse for one very obvious (to me) reason. While super-slick loading times are all well and good, the loading screens in the current/last-gen version of the game would enable the player to collect a little extra heart to make the upcoming level a little bit easier. Without a loading screen the player doesn’t have this opportunity to get the extra heart and therefore makes the level slightly harder for themselves. It’s not a deal-breaker, and you might be the kind of person who would take faster loading times over a slightly easier level any day of the week, but as it was the only major difference between the previous versions of the game and this latest one, it certainly warranted mentioning.

There are some other new additions to the game too, mostly in the form of costumes, with the Xbox One version of the game getting to choose from Rayman or Globox versions of Vaas, one of the antagonists of Ubisoft’s other corker, Far Cry 3.

VERDICT: Rayman Legends on the next-gen consoles is certainly something worth picking up if you’ve yet to grab the game at all (shame on you) but it’s not much of an upgrade if you’ve already been the good little gamer you are and experienced Rayman’s legendary adventure.

SUPERB. This is the mark of greatness, only awarded to games that engage us from start to finish. Titles that score 9/10 will have very few problems or negative issues, and will deliver high quality and value for money across all aspects of their design.

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Review code provided by publisher.