I don’t swear much when I play video games, even though my tendency to use ‘bad words’ in every day life is... very, very high (read: guaranteed). I roll my eyes when a game thwarts my progress, sigh loudly, get up and walk around, or text (or tweet) about how frustrated I am, but I don’t really utter curse words audibly.
Except, apparently, when I play Rayman Legends. During my recent run with a demo, I was yelling out “Oh ****!” at an increasingly frequent rate. At first I was only yelling when I died. Then when I almost died. Then when I thought I was going to die but didn’t. In fact, I think one of the developers was worried that I was getting too agitated. Whoops. Sorry about that, guy. Your game kind of does something to my blood pressure. One Ubisoft PR person told me she knew I was playing the game because she could hear me across the room. Whoops again!
I managed to play two Legends levels that I hadn’t experienced during my past samples of the game. The first was "Mariachi Madness," a music level based on a mariachi version of ‘Eye of the Tiger’ (you can watch it below). The basic idea is that you blitz through the level at a breakneck speed, with your obstacles and enemies positioned such that your jumps and attacks are timed to the rhythm playing in the background. In fact, if you just pay attention to the music, you can more or less predict what’s coming.
But even having a good sense of rhythm (which I do not) won’t entirely save you. Rayman Legends is true to its predecessor, Rayman Origins, in that it wants you to platform through trial and error. Remember those times you used to play Mario by holding down the run button and hoping you make it to the end? Rayman is kind of like that, only by default. You build up a certain amount of speed and them -- BAM! -- run into a wall... of death. Which is usually some sort of creature that bizarrely, vaguely resembles a piece of food holding a fork or something. The entire world of Legends, like Origins, is packed with nonsensical, unrelated, abstract, beautiful imagery that’s somehow twists into a torturous platforming experience.
There’s something about that thrill though. That rush of zooming through a level with little regard for anything around you. You die and then you get back up (or press Start, whatever) and try again. You yell “Oh ****!” and laugh, realizing that the developers lulled you into a false sense of security. The boost of that brief thrill is cut off, and you want it back. So you saddle up, and run again. And again. And again. And your failures only push you to do better.
The boss level, titled "A Madman's Creation," was much the same, albeit with more of a positional thrill than something coming from careening off cliffs and platforms. Fighting a mechanical dragon that shoots beams at you requires a finesse of jumping precision. You narrowly dodge the lasers by moving from ledge to ledge, or hide under other ones as avoid a toasty death. For no apparent reason you get the ability to shoot blue fists at your massive opponent, so when the barrage stops, and his weak point is exposed in his mouth, you go to work. And you push yourself to the point of danger because that’s what Rayman is about. It’s about an utter disregard for sanity and safety.
What a strange little world Ubisoft Montpellier has created. I can’t wait to come back.
Source : ign[dot]com
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