Rayman Legends launched almost 13 years ago, becoming a huge favourite in my household – from its satisfying secret-uncovering to those toe-tapping musical levels, it's a 2D platformer that was easy to love.
And now, Ubisoft has dusted it off, and the developers are not pulling any punches in this latest attempt to revive Rayman.
He may not have knees or elbows, but Rayman does have his fans, and those fans will be hoping that Rayman Legends Retold can pave the way for new adventures further down the line (the developers aren’t shy about wanting that, either).
For now, though, Ubisoft would like you to play Rayman Legends again in this new form. I travelled to Ubisoft’s office in Woking to play about an hour of the game, and let me tell you, if you liked this game back in the day, it is still exactly the same at its core.
In fact, chatting to one of the developers after the demo, I learned that – through some technical trickery I can’t claim to understand – the code from the old game is still being used in the new game, despite being ported to a new engine that can support prettier backgrounds and more dynamic transition.
Ubisoft has added a few new things, too, ranging from the weird to the wonderful, to give returning fans some fresh experiences. I got to see some of the new content in this demo, so let’s run through them, shall we?
One of the things they've added is a series of flying levels, which are a bit weird, to be honest. In these new parts of the game, you switch into a 3D perspective, and you have to fly these giant dragons away from the camera with all these Teensies on your back.
This is quite a departure. In the original game’s levels, you're going from left to right in a 2D plane and collecting Teensies. In these flying ones, you're flying away from the camera in 3D and trying to not lose them. If you hit a wall or a rock or something, you're going to lose a Teensy, and if you lose all of them, you will fail the level.
If the original game is stuck firmly in your memory, this addition may seem very random. It doesn't even necessarily feel like the same game, but the developers are obviously trying something. They clearly want to get these assets to work in 3D.
Taking that thought a step further, the flying level feels like a situation of, ‘We're working on this because we might want to do more 3D in our next game." But it was quite fun, truth be told, especially in the second flying level we played (which was a bit more challenging than the first one).
They've also added cutscenes, which they didn't particularly have in the original game (which was limited to having the little 2D characters warbling some gibberish to each other). The new story scenes look pretty good, not far off what you’d see in an animated feature film, and they’re fully voiced too.
We didn't get to see this, but they've also added four more of the musical levels, which will be wonderful music to the ears of returning players. These levels, where you have to land your jumps and your punches in time with a licensed tune, were a legendary feature in the original game.
And, fret not – I double-checked, and the addition of new musical levels does not mean that the previous musical levels have been removed for licensing issues. All the old ones are still there, apparently. They've just added four more.
You'll see the music levels a bit more regularly, too. You don't have to finish a whole level to get to a musical bit, which is very welcome indeed.
They are also adding one new world, which we did not get to see. I assume it will be kind of the final one you get to in the game. And in that new world, you're going to have a new ability, which is something to do with light.
This new world is a huge positive for fans, too. It proves to me that the people making this game have not only remade the original one, but, in doing so, they’ve relearned the skills to make a new Rayman level, which can only bode well for the future.
And there was one more thing. Hub worlds. In the original game, you just had to walk between little doors to get from one level to another. They've now made more of an overworld - there's a little bit more to do there, and there's now a big joined-up overworld map which shows how all these weird little regions join together. Not a huge change, that, but it's something.
As I played the not-new stuff, I found myself very much enjoying revisiting the original platforming levels – even when I knew where to expect a collectible, I still felt a thrill when I heard that ‘ooh’ sound. And I still felt very proud when I cleared a level with a full collection of Teensies.
No doubt about it, I’m ready to play this game again, especially with Ubisoft going to all this effort to make a shiny new version. It feels like they've really pulled out all the stops.
As a whole package, it basically feels like Ubisoft has added all this nice wrapping paper around what was already an excellent game. So yeah, I look forward to playing it again with all this extra glitter on top. And if it paves the way for an all-new Rayman game, you can count me in for that too.
Rayman Legends Retold will launch on 1 October 2026.
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