Rayman Legends Review | The Game Effect

Rayman Legends doesn’t look like a game. When the opening plays, it looks like something from Pixar’s concept art department brought to life. And then suddenly, the movie you started watching says you get to take control. You get to play the Disney movie that never existed but that you almost wish it did. Every aspect of the game is brimming with personality and character, whether it’s a chopped tree trunk or Rayman himself.

While Origins still felt distinctly like a platformer that was just quirky with it’s art, Legends features some of the best lighting and character design you’ll ever see. The contrast with new 3D elements, like water and bosses, helps make the important elements pop. All the detail in the background trumpets each universe you venture into like you’re running across storyboard panels and concept art for a movie. You can feel a story building around you that’s truly never spoken about, just always merely presented for you to interpret. It’s the subtle storytelling most indie games are known for, so it’s great to see this kind of storytelling in a AAA game.

[Sketchy_Galore]

I honestly can't tell if this is satire. You spent almost half the review complaining that one of the female character skins was too skimpily dressed. That would be a weird enough complaint by itself toward a game with such a cartoony art style if she wasn't just wearing the same short skirt/ short top combo in the skins you seem to have no problem with. You also claim 'Barbara' is the only female character aside from one of the Teensies. It's true that all of the female characters are essentially just the same character reskinned but that goes for all of the Teensies and the other kinds of characters. You can't separate the Teensies into distinct characters when they're all just reskinned models then complain that Barbara is the only female character when all of her other skins have their own names and backstories. Honestly, complaining about the sexualisation of a character in a game like this, even labelling the thing offensive because you could ... Gasp....see her underwear at one point (something I honestly never noticed) it's just so far beyond sane criticism. This whole hyper sensitive political correctness thing is getting to levels of insane sensitivity the American religious fanatics of the 1980's would never even have dreamed of.

Also, Castle rock is not an original score. It's a cover of a traditional song named Black Betty as interpreted by the band Ram Jam.

[donwel]

I completely agree, though it seems reviews and features like this are, unfortunately becoming the trend, apparently the way a character is drawn affects the way a game is played.
Honestly I've considered setting up a website to actually review games on the merit of how they play (what they should be judged on) as opposed to what the characters are wearing. I'm sick of the agenda being pushed by gaming sites these days, it's pretty much become the new Jack Thompson.

[Paradigmthefallen]

I mean it -- are these two paragraphs going at it crazier than rabbits, producing tons of offspring? This was a relatively small part of a long review.

...were the paragraphs where I specifically talked about the gameplay and how it's improved destroyed by the herd of baby paragraphs? I could swear I spent the majority of the review talking about how the game looks and plays excellent, especially in the boss battles.

In case the score is the problem -- TGE uses the old scale of 5 being the average instead of 7, so me giving it a 7.8/10 essentially a 9.8/10 on most other review scales. I called the game one of the best of our generation. I even wrote about how playing it is like you're running through a Disney movie. I didn't go "welp, no story and a scantily clad character with no purpose given to her being designed that way, I'm deducting points! LULZ!"

If you think I'm lying, go ahead and read my other reviews on TGE. Did I complainer about Copperhead in Arkham Origins? Did I bemoan Hotline Miami as the Anti-Christ? I'm not some ultra-conservative who pretends the world is all Rush Limbaugh. I'm actually happy to see games going into more mature avenues, but we've got to play it SMART.

This decision in Legends wasn't smart. It was a questionable move at best, and I've heard a number of people from various moral and religious (or lack thereof) standpoints who agree. You might not agree, and I'm happy you don't! That means you're actually thinking for yourself -- a lacking trait in a world full of nostalgic fanboys.

I'm not against games touching on mature topics. I just want them to be smarter about it.

[Paradigmthefallen]

Hmm, I'll look into the Castle Rock issue and update the review appropriately.

As for the "hyper sensitive aspect" -- half the review? Here I was thinking it was two paragraphs! I'll let my editor know that it's begun reproducing while we weren't looking.

I apologize, I must have not made it clear enough that I have no problem with this sort of thing when it serves a PURPOSE. I could dare say I even referenced Hello Nurse, something that some of these "hyper sensitive" people you refer to hated, but that I have no problem with.

Please let me rectify the situation: I don't care if there's something sexualized about a character in Dragon Age or Mass Effect because it serves a purpose there. Sex is an important topic to touch upon, and I applaud any developer who tries to treat it seriously. Here, it simply doesn't add anything, and it's from where I sit, it's a smirch on one of my favorite platforming characters.

The offensive aspect for me was that it was done to a character where it never really fit. If they'd made it work, I'd be fine with it. It's the difference between a Mel Brooks movie and a Scary Movie sequel.