Review | Rayman Origins

Rayman has gone through a tumultuous time in his/her/it’s 16 year life as both Ubisoft’s mascot and platforming icon. Aside from appearing on dozens of different platforms include the exotic Jaguar and the legendary Dreamcast (sob), Rayman has traversed hundreds of miles and thousands of levels, all while speaking gibberish and having a distinct lack of limbs.

While Rayman may have a storied history, the character has never reached the kind of prestige that his platforming counterparts Mr Hedgehog and Mr Mario have; even shamefully reaching the stage where the spinoff Raving Rabbid games have become more successful than the core game that introduced them.

But all that has changed come 2011, all that has changed come Rayman Origins, not only the best Rayman game ever made (by a mile), but simply the best platform game in years.

As the title suggests Rayman Origins takes the series back to its roots and explains what made the titular Man of Ray into the hero that his is today. Rather than a Hollywood-style reboot of the franchise, Origins simply details the period of his life before he become all heroic and what actually drove him to the character you played in the PlayStation original.

Catering for both the Rayman virgin (that just sounds wrong) and the Rayman stud (as does that); the storyline is a perfect example of how to take a slightly used franchise and make it once again relevant to a modern gaming audience. Gamers who might have not even have been born in 1995 will still be able to fully understand the narrative growth of the seemingly immature Rayman as he fully develops in both personality and powers through the course of the game.

And what a game it is. Starting off with simple tutorial style levels, Rayman is tasked with freeing imprisoned Electoons in order to right the wrongs that have been created in his world and turn it back into the chilled out party land that he and his homies love.

The story and, more importantly, the way it is delivered, perfectly suits the style of game that Rayman Origins is. In fact almost everything here compliments and suits everything else. From the gorgeous hand-drawn artwork, to the unique character models of enemies and friends alike, to the astonishingly varied level design; everything about Rayman Origins is original and so fits with the world Ubisoft has created.

And what a world it is. Progressing through the more than 60 amazing levels is breath-taking. Sets of levels might take place in arctic wilderness, or desert heat; but no matter where the situation takes Rayman, every location is astonishing. It’s hard to even put into words what Rayman Origins looks like in motion, but imagine playing through a painting pulled directly from the mind of some child genius and you might have an idea.

Each level has certain goals to be achieved before it can be completed. These goals range from freeing all of the trapped Electoons, beating the clock or collecting enough gold Lums (think Sonic’s coins) to unlock yet another Electoon. Collect enough of these Electoons and you unlock not only additional characters and skins but new challenging boss levels.

Rayman Origins not only acts as an origin story for the title character but also serves a somewhat of a loose history lesson/tribute to gaming as a whole. Homages abound throughout the game, ranging from the obvious (Space Invaders/Angry Birds) to the stunning (Nokia’s snake cellphone game); Rayman Origins is a masterclass in post-modern gaming, a platformer that not only knows the genre inside and out but also the players playing it.

And what a platformer it is. Across the multitude of different world styles, Rayman (and/or friends) will find themselves solving ridiculous puzzles, flying horrendously ugly mosquitos, racing through astonishingly difficult levels; all the while laughing at the pure absurdly good time they’ll be having.

Through that good time the game can also become extremely difficult for the completest. Sure those that want to breeze through the levels with the minimum amount of achievement will probably be able to manage it, but those of us who live for the golden ping of a trophy or the sheer satisfaction of 100% will find some of the gameplay extremely challenging. But this never feels like a bad thing, the game controls so well that any real challenge is always able to be overcome in the gamers hands, a rule that all great games should follow.

Origins also caters for up to four players with drop-in/drop-out co-op play. While the single-player experience is still amazing, playing the game with a friend is a a happy meal of awesome. Allowing two, three or four players to help each other through those stonking levels is sheer gaming brilliance, but also allowing them to beat, wail, smash and fight amongst each other is an absolute joy.

Rayman Origins is a pleasure to play and a pleasure to review. In a year which has seen a stunning return to form for Sonic and what looked like a lock for platformer of the year with Sonic Generations; Rayman Origins has come from out of nowhere to snatch the crown.

A blast and a half of puzzling, shooting, homages, humour and plain French weirdness, Rayman Origins is a near perfect platforming experience. Do yourself a favour and take a trip to Rayman town, trust me, you’ll have a great old time.    [9]