This is a sequel to "Rayman Origins" which took the series back to its original 2D roots, and used the beautiful art style using Ubisoft's UbiArt Framework engine.
There’s loads of levels in the game, with loads of different ideas. Many levels are designed for fast movement but you can take your time with them. Then there’s the ones that play more like auto-scrolling where you have to constantly move and get all the jumps and attacks perfect.
Some of the autoscrolling ones are music levels where your jumps and attacks are lined up to the beat of the song. It features the likes of Black Betty, Eye of the Tiger, Misirlou. It's like the music from Raving Rabbids where the vocals are replaced with gibberish, and the music can be played with unconventional instruments.
The levels are of mixed length, some levels are very long whereas others are brief experiences.
There’s many levels where you need to call your assistant Murray to move platforms, or move hazards out of the way. This was originally designed with the Wii U in mind so would rely on tapping the touch screen. On PC, it's a button press. Pressing to activate Murphy and jumping can be challenging to coordinate though. One creature blows air so you need to jump, activate Murphy, then hold jump to glide.
You navigate through the levels in typical platforming style, defeating enemies by bouncing on their heads, or throwing a punch. You can hold to throw a punch a larger distance, but this wasn't used much.
Aside from the “invasion” levels which are shorter but require a flawless run, the levels are 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 have unlimited lives which is a great choice.
You can sprint, jump and glide through the air. Some worlds allow you to run along walls, or some feature swimming.
20,000 Lums Under The Sea slows down the pace with stealth focussed levels. They are really creative and it's one of the highlights of the game. Many of the challenges involve robots that have a line of sight and will laser you. You can get away with briefly being in their sight but mainly you avoid them completely. You activate platforms to block line of sight or based on timing to get past them
Within the levels, there are several Teensies to rescue, which are often in hard to reach or hidden areas. So you always need to keep your eyes peeled and ears open to find them. These are used to unlock new levels so are essential.
Lums are the generic collectable, like coins in other games. When there’s sequences of Lums, the first one will usually be purple which gives more Lums. Once you collect it, the next in the sequence will change to purple. So this system gives higher rewards for making jumps with the correct timing and/or accuracy. There are Skull Coins placed in hidden or more dangerous areas which are worth 25 Lums.
By collecting Lums, you can achieve the trophies and acquire a scratch card. The scratch card can reward you with levels from Origins and there’s loads of them too. Lums also unlock characters to play as but the majority of them are just simple palette swaps and they aren't as interesting as the title character.
Origins had some levels that played like a side-scrolling shooter, and you can play some in the Origins levels included here, but there’s no new ones in the core game. The shooting levels sees Rayman riding a mosquito. The mosquito can shoot in addition to inhaling an enemy to use as a powerful projectile.
The platforming levels from Origins feel similar, but one noticeable difference is that they end with a Teensie in a cage usually guarded by enemies, compared to the way Legends levels end which is a doorway which shows you your results.
There are a few boss fights which usually involve dodging attacks and throwing many punches when there’s an opening.These often contain platforming challenges in between phases.
Although most levels are very fun to play, there’s quite a lot of moments that resort to trial and error. Sometimes I see an enemy/hazard suddenly appear, and even though I thought I was quick to react; I would still fail.
There’s a lot of content here, and it’s a creative game and beautiful to look at. If you like platforming games, then this is an essential play.