Launch Station: Rayman Legends

The time has come.  After close to a year of waiting, Rayman Legends is finally on store shelves.  It has been a long and tumultuous road of delays, loss of exclusivity and many other crazy circumstances.  While this writer is baffled about how horrible Ubisoft handles one of their premier franchises, it is relieving to finally get our hands on a game that should have been out six months ago.  Rayman may not be a sales powerhouse like Assassin's Creed; this limbless hero is easily taking the platforming world by storm thanks to polished gameplay, excellent controls and beautiful hand-drawn graphics.

After sleeping for a century, Rayman and friends are awoken to world far less pleasant than they left it at the end of Rayman Origins.  The Bubble Dreamer's nightmares along with the dark teensies have grown in strength and kidnapped the princesses of the land and the peaceful teensie people.  It is up to Rayman and friends to stop the nightmares and dark teensies from corrupting the Glade of Dreams.  Rayman Legends improves on the platforming gameplay of Rayman Origins as running, jumping, collecting lums and saving teensies are the name of the game.  Just like its predecessor, Legends allows up to four players to participate in these levels.  Note that this co-operative multiplayer is only available locally.  Apart from the standard platforming fair, Legends offers brand new levels where you take control of Murfy the fairy.  As Murfy, players interact with the environment to assist Rayman and friends such as cutting ropes, activating switches or distracting enemies.  On the Vita and Wii U, players control Murfy with the touch controls on the Wii U's Gamepad or the Vita's touch screen.  While on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC, Murfy is controlled by a button press.  Rayman Legends includes 80 brand new levels and 40 remastered levels from Rayman Origins along with remixed versions of each level available upon completion of the game.  While Rayman Legends offers a ton of content for its single-player component, it offers a robust online component as well.  The online Challenge mode offers challenges for players to complete in order to earn trophies and rise through the leaderboards.  There are new challenges offered everyday to keep gamers coming back each day to post their best times and distances.

Rayman Legends has been a high anticipated game for yours truly.  It was the game this writer bought a Wii U just to play.  While the delays and other obstacles Ubisoft threw at us were disheartening, those actions will not deter my enjoyment of Rayman Legends.  The men and women at Ubisoft's Montpellier studio put their hearts and souls into this game and for them this writer puts down his money in support.  While Diablo III and Grand Theft Auto V may suck up a ton of money this September, let us show Ubisoft that Rayman and Ubsioft Montpellier deserve a lot more respect than they give them.  The only way to make this change is to talk with your money and pick up Rayman Legends for your console or handheld of choice.