Date played: August 16th
Platform: Xbox One
Session fun rating: 10/10
I finished Rayman Legends!
Honestly, this was one of the best platformers I've ever played. It's right up there with Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze and Super Mario World in my books. The last few levels were devilishly difficult, requiring intense precision, good memorization and excellent timing. The final boss was a giant "dark" creature that I had to destroy with the ranged attack as I dodged it and navigated insane platforms.
The game wasn't over after the boss though. There was a last world that was mysteriously locked behind a door requiring that I had saved 400 creatures. I wasn't quite there yet, so I completed a few more challenge levels and one of the Rayman Origins levels. Once I had the 400, I discovered that the final world was a compilation of musical levels. It had all of the previous levels, but with added 8-bit effects. There was also a new level with a bunch of rocking grannies that was lots of fun.
Platform: Xbox One
Session fun rating: 10/10
I finished Rayman Legends!
Honestly, this was one of the best platformers I've ever played. It's right up there with Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze and Super Mario World in my books. The last few levels were devilishly difficult, requiring intense precision, good memorization and excellent timing. The final boss was a giant "dark" creature that I had to destroy with the ranged attack as I dodged it and navigated insane platforms.
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| The final boss |
The 8-bit effects were absolutely wonderful visually, but they served another purpose. They added an extra difficulty layer on top of the already difficult levels... For example, in one level, the image was distorted, as if seen through a very curved CRT TV. In another, the image became "snowy". Then another had the image pixelated. The twist is that the effect gradually became more and more intense as the level went on. In some levels, this meant I didn't see the screen for long periods. In another, the image became so pixelated that I couldn't even tell what was happening on screen, having to rely on the musical cues to succeed.
Finally, the remixed granny rock level was an absolute masterpiece... It combined all the previous effects, then added gradual split screening, flipped the screen and a bunch of other little tricks to make the entire level a real pleasure to play through. Rayman Legends is under-appreciated. More people need to play this charming, beautiful, funny, challenging game!
