Rayman is a platforming marvel that oozes with charm, beauty and overall whimsy, and makes for one of gaming's best platformers out there, however a few of it's concepts do scuff the overall package.

AESTHETICS AND STYLE:
As if Rayman Origins wasn't stunning enough, the slider has been turned up to 11, our main heroes, enemies, as well as the overall environment is given a visual overhaul, with a more painterly, storybook, or shaded style in comparison to Rayman Origin's comic/cartoon style, the game also plays around with more 3D elements and layers to truly immerse yourself in this silly world, this can be seen with dragons being 3D, or things happening in the background, and just generally more polish and visual flare in comparison, it's one of the most stunning platformers out there.

GAMEPLAY:
It's your typical Rayman affair, game is robust with great character control and physics, however I've noticed there's a lot more emphasis on segments and flow, generally more closely knit in comparison to origins, this may not seem bad, it does make for a stellar single player campaign, however I'm not sure if I can say the same for it's 4-5 player co op structure, it might just be a general thing for co op games to be chaotic but it didn't feel as tho there's much freedom for such a feature, since levels are linear, you'd just be tailing from behind than exploring different layers on your own, maybe it gets better if I play longer. Another new feature that's sort of a mixed bag is the introduction of purple lums, lums that appear purple and dancing at the start of a lum trail, which collecting will continue along the line of lums giving double the amount, and while this is neat, it does make gameplay a lot more challenging and strict as you really have to be careful on collecting otherwise you'd break the chain and return to normal yellow, this mechanic I feel would make co op mode a lot more stressful as you'd have to make sure your partner doesn't touch the path so you can get enough lums, lum requirement is also stricter so in order to get all trophies on a stage, it's essential to make every lum count. One huge gimmick introduced is Murphy, a character who's mechanic is designed for the wii u's touch controls, is now a simple button press with predetermined paths to loop and wait when given the signal. Murphy I'd say is the most mixed bag that I feel would turn away some folks from the game, call it a skill issue but it is generally just stressful to navigate and care about him at the same time, it makes for good reaction speed challenges but I'm really just yearning for simple platforming, and makes this game feel like it's only best experienced when in co op only, this idea is however thrown out the window on every other platform release aside from the Wii U and vita, as stated earlier that murphy's simplified to button presses, so the whole gang can suffer together fighting over murphy's controls, sometimes leading to funny moments of murphy pulling away someone's platform, killing them due to both parties pressing the same button.

There are also rhythm based music stages which I think are really neat.

Game is also crazy jam packed with content, aswell as sporting all the stages from origins, making this a pretty splendid deal if you wanna get around to playing the originals, without the bossfights however.

MUSIC:
Rayman Legends really puts the legend in it's title with orchestral arrangements to coincide with the storybook feel of the game and are all very memorable. It also has a few licensed music covers rayman-ified with it's kazoos and enemy sounds which I find very nice too. Overall a big step up from Origins' already stellar soundtrack.

STORY:
Just like mario, this game doesn't really feature a lot of story elements, it's a pretty simple premise of a bunch of areas being conquered by nightmares, wake up Rayman and the gang and mess them up, no real comments on this.

CRITICISMS:
- As stated before, the game's a bit more close knit in comparison to origins, making the exploration, and multiplayer aspect of the game feeling a bit eh.

- Murphy is just a real sore thumb sometimes as it's clearly designed to be controlled by another person in mind, but isn't translated onto other consoles, filling your plate with this guy to deal with, as if normal gameplay isn't hectic enough.

- Murphy's disabled in music stages on different platforms so you just get points of awkward glowing signs that feel like it should be interacted.

- The introduction of purple lums adds more challenge to a single player game sure but really hurts co op experiences with doing your best trying to make your partner not break a chain to get the most out of them, to adhere to the much strict lum count requirements to achieve all trophies. (The trophies don't do anything anyway but I want them)

- these new mechanics, design, and gimmicks makes it feel the game can't decide if you want a friend along or not, and if you do, you simply just follow the leader.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
While Rayman Legends does bring a lot of amount onto the table, it does have a few mechanics that I feel hurt the overall product, co op especially which could make it mixed to recommend for the multiplayer aspect but it's still one of the greatest platformers out there nonetheless, and is just an evolution of Origin's gameplay, you get a free copy of Origins in the game too!

Anyway please get rayman out of purgatory Ubisoft I'm begging you