Rayman Origins

First things first: The 'Origins' in the title does not refer to the game's story - we open with not just Rayman, but Globox and two Teensies in medias res. And to be frank, who really gives a damn, it's Rayman. The game almost revels in how little of a story it musters up. More power to it.

It's also not purely a case of Ubisoft thinking numbers are too uncool to call this Rayman 4, as this goes halfway back to the roots of Rayman in terms of gameplay. And since that is the only Rayman game I've ever played prior to this (save for a very brief and frustrating stint trying to get the hang of the 3D controls of Rayman 2 at my cousin's house) that suits me just fine.

Fundamentally, while we are back to 2D platforming, freeing electoons from cages, gradually receiving additional powers from fairies as the game progresses and facing a boss every now and then, the pacing has been turned on its head compared to the spiritual predecessor from 1995: The frequently, slow, precise and punishing nature has been replaced with a fast, and more importantly, quick-flowing romp of a platformer suited for 4 player co-op. To that end, the iconic thrown fist had to be axed in favor of more modest melee attacks, and instead of electoon cages being frequently tucked away and/or locked behind esoteric hidden triggers the completionist approach relies on making the player collect boatloads of lums that the game throws at you and finding at most two (more or less) hidden extra cages per level. The old design paradigm will not be missed.

Especially since Rayman Origins has a much more modern resource system. It forgos lives; a death simply sends you back to the last checkpoint, which is usually the start of the current room. At most you can occasionally collect a heart which lets you survive one hit, but that's it. Granted, this does incentivize simply killing yourself to reset the room once you fail to collect the desired amount of lums from it, but hey, The Glade of Dreams is a free country, or will be soon, anyway.

With an arsenal of moves that will quickly include wall-jumping, running (and eventually wall-running) and hovering, there's little stopping you from barreling through the levels, though optimizing your lum count, especially through the hidden or well-guarded coins, as well as finding the rooms with additional cages will require a slightly more careful approach and keeping your eyes peeled. Thanks to time attack challenges, true completionists will inevitably have to play most levels more than once. The biggest interruption in the gameplay loop comes in the form of the mosquito levels. A one-of in OG Rayman, the flying autoscroller levels are upgraded to a recurring level type in Origins and feature shooting to make them just a little more involved.

Most of the game's difficulty lies in the optional objectives. If you put on blinders and completely ignored all the lums, I'd imagine the game would be relatively easy, but I really could not fathom doing so, they are just far too inviting. The same goes for the entirely optional Tricky Treasure levels, tough high-speed faux-autoscrollers which unlock a secret final level serving as the ultimate test of skill à la "Champion's Road" from Super Mario 3D World.

The game is at its worst whenever it does demand great precision, which happens in the case of a few coins and certain Tricky Treasure segments. Although not too egregious because of generous checkpoints and the lack of lives, the boss fights and some TT parts are also very hard to react to without prior knowledge. Tricky Treasure levels, which have you chase after a running treasure chest, feature some unpredictable rubberbanding to keep the chest ahead of you until the end while keeping the environment collapse at the appropriate pace. However, this can lead to frustrating situations where a minute slip-up can make an attempt unsalvagable even if that same mistake has no consequence whatsoever in a different spot in the same level.

But it is very easy to forgive Rayman Origins, because the game is just so damn charming. The hand-drawn character designs (especially the ludicrous bosses) and animations (especially for the player characters) are stellar, the environments, enemies and obstacles colorful, flavorful and creative, the music perfectly whimsical, the nymphs a great boon to the shortstack cause, and the overall goofy vibe simply bound to put you in a good mood.

When I saw the title "Rayman Origins", I thought it was a remake of the first game. However, it's a new game but goes back to its old 2D roots. The game is incredibly beautiful, using Ubisoft's UbiArt Framework engine.

There are two types of level – standard platforming, and side-scrolling shooter. Each level shows a medallion which illustrates how many Electoons (caged creatures) have been collected on that level, and if you have completed the Time Trial challenge. There's an Electoon cage at the end of the level, in addition to a few hidden throughout the level. Playing certain levels are restricted until you collect a certain amount of Electoons.

In the standard levels, you navigate through the levels in typical platforming style, defeating enemies by bouncing on their heads, or throwing a punch. The shooting levels sees Rayman riding a mosquito. The mosquito can shoot in addition to inhaling an enemy to use as a powerful projectile. Regardless of the type of level, they will be split into sections which act as checkpoints. Rayman can only take one hit, but can pick up a heart vial which allows you to take an additional hit. It's much like the Tiki masks in Crash Bandicoot.

You start only being able to sprint and jump, but you eventually unlock new abilities, such as gliding through the air, and running up walls and swimming. You can unlock characters to play as other than Rayman but the majority of them are just simple palette swaps and they aren't as interesting as the title character.

On your way through the levels, you will collect Lums and you are awarded Electoons at the end of the level for passing certain thresholds. I often just missed out on the higher threshold which was annoying. Yellow Lums are the basic collectible, but collecting a Lum King turns some Lums red which are then worth two yellow Lums. There are Skull Coins placed in hidden or more dangerous areas which are worth 25 Lums.

There are a few boss fights which involve punching a weak spot which appears at certain times. Some of the bosses, particularly towards the end, are quite unfair; resorting to trial and error. In fact, there's a lot of normal levels that rely on trial and error towards the end of the game. This is a shame, because the difficulty and game design seems great, and then becomes frustrating in the final moments.

Locking the wall jump behind the second zone besides, this might be one of the best 2D platformers ever. It is certainly one of the smoothest, between the controls and the collectible design designating a sense of satisfying flow and giving it greater depth of challenge beyond simply not dying. As good now as the day it came out.

There's something so charming, so effortless and graceful about Rayman Origins. Everything just flows, while the level design keeps you on your toes without ever becoming overly punishing. The story takes a backseat to the gameplay, of course, yet it's interesting how well they build Rayman's world, level by level, strange obstacle by strange obstacle. The music is another major trump card. Not only are the melodies memorable and totally in sync with the game's tone, they branch out in a number of impressive directions. I was particularly surprised by spotting a Choro tune paying homage to Hermeto Pascoal. Honestly, I don't think there's been a better 2d platformer this decade and I'd recommend it in a heartbeat to anyone remotely into the genre.