Rayman Legends: Definitive Edition (Nintendo Switch) Review

Pitched as the sequel to Rayman Origins, Legends takes place a century later, as the villain of the former regains his strength and splits into five beings, and kidnaps the 10 princesses and Teensie creatures of the land. Rayman and his friends are awoken from a long slumber and tasked by the Bubble Dreamer, lord of the Glade of Dreams, to rescue the maidens and stop the magician remnants. None of this is required knowledge to play the game; the progression of Rayman Legends is largely linear and the bare minimum of plot offering is conveyed through animated prompts and small cut-scenes.

As far as overall game presentation goes, Rayman Legends knocks it out of the park. Beautiful 2D visuals and incredible animation, built on the Ubi Art Framework Engine, it is simply sublime on the Switch's 720p screen, and even more so when docked and moving up to 1080p. Sound direction is solid, with catchy tunes and ear-pleasing melodies aplenty. The colour of Rayman's world just pops, and the expressiveness of the characters, both friend and foe alike, makes Rayman Legends a joy to witness. The transition to Switch has introduced slight hiccups in the otherwise solid 60 frames per second, but these skips are very rare and, thankfully, don't intrude upon gameplay.

Rayman Legends operates on a 2D plane, and tasks either a singular player or up to four with conquering levels set in themed worlds, and saving the numerous Teensie creatures trapped in each one. Finishing one level will open the next, and collecting enough Lum creatures along the way will yield more bonuses. Paintings in the Glade of Dreams hub world allow for quick access of these worlds and levels, and also for unlocked character switching and mini-game play. This quick accessibility greatly benefits the portable aspect of the Switch, as does, of course, the split Joy-Con for multiplayer use. Sadly, there is another transition issue, in the form of longer loading scenes between levels and the hub world. Although notably longer than in other versions of the game, how the scenes work does help with the increased wait, as players can mess around with their selected character on a silhouetted plain and even gain a health power-up for the upcoming level with the right timing.

When originally touted as a Wii U exclusive, Rayman Legends differentiated itself from other platformers in how it used the GamePad touch screen, namely controlling Murphy the Greenbottle Fly and manipulating objects in certain levels to progress. For solo runs, the character would be computer-controlled, and multiplayer would see the GamePad holder become Murphy to guide everyone else. As it saw release on other formats, without screens to touch, this control aspect was dialled back into button prompts instead, and this is mainly what Switch uses. A separate section of levels, dubbed Murphy's Touch, reintroduces the touch screen use of those levels back into the game, albeit only in Switch's handheld mode, and it works well. It has to be said, though, that there is no option to allow for multiplayer wireless connections in this mode, meaning the five-player possibilities from the Wii U version of Rayman Legends are not present. A minor loss, ultimately, but still a noteworthy one.

The base game of Rayman Legends is fairly extensive, boasting many hours from just reaching the end of the levels themselves, but when throwing in saving the Teensies from each, and collecting enough Lums for the highest medals, that task suddenly becomes quite the challenge. Not to mention unlocking the vast number of costumes accumulated from all previous versions of the game. Special scratch cards can be won from high medal achievements and these sometimes yield collectible creatures, as well as a selection of Rayman Origins levels to play. On top of all this, special daily and weekly challenge levels are available and supported by online leaderboards.

Not even mentioned yet are the two Kung Foot mini-games, the Tournament version of which is a new introduction to the Switch version of the game. Lacking depth but still a surprising amount of offhand fun for multiple people, the new version can even be played over a wireless connection. Rayman Legends: Definitive Edition on Switch may not be fully deserving of its subtitle due to certain performance issues and lacking a notable feature, but for its budget asking price, new players will find a lot to love.