Action · 2013 · Ubisoft Montpellier · local
Rayman Legends
A hand-painted platformer where missing a jump costs nothing but a second.
What it is about
Rayman and his companions run, jump and punch their way through hand-painted levels that change theme every four or five minutes: Greek temples, an underwater world, a kitchen full of pots. All of it is drawn rather than rendered, and ten years on it still looks new.
The core for two is the bubble: get hit or fall into a pit and you hover in place until somebody taps you. So there are no lives and no screen death that sets both of you back.
At the end of every world comes a music level — a run where every jump, every punch and every platform sits on the beat of a song. You play with up to four on one screen from one copy. There is no online mode.
Our verdict for couples
Miss a jump here and you lose no life; you float on as a bubble until the other one taps it. That removes the exact hurdle two-player platformers usually founder on: the more practised one racing ahead while the other keeps starting over. Then there are the music levels, where every jump and every punch lands on the beat — they are still a joy the fifth time round, and they are why this game still gets put on more than ten years later. On a sofa that makes it one of the friendliest there is. Online, though, there is nothing at all, and on PC reviews still report save files vanishing.
Pros
- One copy is enough on split screen
- Fall and you float as a bubble to be collected
- A level takes three minutes
Cons
- Everyone runs on one picture; race ahead and you drag the other along
- Save files keep vanishing on PC
- The later levels need practice from both
Suitable from
Casual–Hobby
- Conflict potential
- Harmonious
- Cosiness
- Mixed
- When you can stop
- After 15 minutes
- How long it lasts
- 5–15 hours
What other co-op fans say
The word that comes up most here is childhood — many played it back then and put it on again ten years later. Praise goes to artwork that does not age, and expressly to the fact that it works with somebody who otherwise does not play. The recurring objection is not about content but about technology: save files vanish on PC, and the former online challenges have been switched off.
- “Excellent game for a share. Platformer that never gets old. Super fun to play with your girlfriend thats not a gamer too lol”
- “One of the best game I played in my childhood and I would say it's still a game that's def enjoyable for people of any age”
- “Saves keep getting deleted and I am forced to restart the game every time I load it. Only game this happens with.”
Summarised by machine from 60 Steam reviews, not written by our editors. The quotes appear verbatim in those reviews.
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