It has been quite a while since Rayman has been in the spotlight. His last adventure took place in 2003 on the last generations of systems. Since then, he took some time off to help his Rabbid friends make their mark on the video game world. Rayman is back to his platforming roots now and he is much better off for it. Rayman Origins is 2D platforming at its finest.

 

Before you even take control of Rayman, the game strikes you with its beautiful visuals. The characters and their world are all hand drawn and look incredible. Everything in the game pops out at you. Character animations are fluid with a wide variety of expressions based on the situation. Backgrounds look fantastic and will sometimes have activity. While some of it is just for show, certain sections will have events happening in the background that will effect what is happening to the player. Occasionally, there will be things in front of the player adding a layered look to the stages. Nothing substantial happens in the front layer, but it’s a nice touch that adds even more life to the already beautiful worlds.

 

To add to the beauty, stage designs are varied from world to world. Locations range from jungles to instrumental deserts to deep underwater to a token ice world and more. Each location offers unique challenges along with the change of scenery. Some enemies are specific to location taking advantage to the surroundings. In the ice world, you slip and slide around the terrain while some enemies gracefully skate along platforms. Some stages even go from one type of location to another within the stage itself. You are never quite sure of the challenges that await you until you experience them.

 

Thankfully, Rayman Origins plays as good as it looks. Controlling Rayman though the some 60 levels feels great. The game responds perfectly to your inputs. In fact, it feels so good that when you do mess up, you know that the error is on you. It was extremely rare to feel as if any failing was a poor response from the game. Make no mistake about it though, you will falter from time to time. Origins does a fantastic job slowly ramping up the difficulty level as the game progresses. Stage design gets more intricate as the game goes on, but the challenge doesn’t end there. New enemies are introduced intermittently offering new gimmicks forcing you to find different ways to take them out.

 

 

There are many times where absolute precision is necessary to complete the stage or collect an item. Those sections of the game are an absolute blast to play. Most notable of these challenges are special unlockable stages where you have to run after a Treasure Chest. These stages will test your platforming skills and reflexes. These stages are a straight up sprint forward with making precise jumps at the right length and height. Add in great uses for wall runs, rope swinging, and wall jumping and you have some of the most intense 2D platforming you can experience. One mistake and you are starting over.

 

You do not have access to your entire arsenal of moves right away. Every time you free one of the Nymphs at the beginning of a world, she grants you a new ability. The game does a fantastic job of easing you in to using these new tricks. After each acquisition, you are greeted with a simple puzzle or obstacle course to familiarize yourself with your new power. As that world goes on, increasingly more intricate challenges are thrown at you. By the end of the game, you are a master at using your skills together to accomplish your goal. In fact, this type of slow difficultly increase is indicative of the overall difficultly increase. While the game does get more challenging, you never feel as if the difficultly gets unfair. You are getting better as you play and the developers acknowledge that and adjust the overall difficultly and stage design as needed.