Rayman Legends: Wii U's Premiere Game at E3 2012 - Preview

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My first stop of E3 2012 took me over to the Ubisoft booth and the Rayman Legends station for the Wii U and to say that I walked away impressed would be a massive understatement. From what I’ve seen and played so far on the show this new Rayman game may just be the definitive game to pick up at the Wii U’s launch.

One of the biggest draws of Rayman Origins was the gorgeous hand-drawn visuals and in this regard Legends’ HD visuals definitely do not disappoint. The game just looks like a Saturday morning cartoon in high definition, from the animations to the background. Not only that but the environments are also fully alive with many moving objects that convey a huge sense of size and grandeur making the game feel even more epic.

But of course knowing that that game was a sequel to Rayman Origins it was a given that the game was going to look good the question is does it play just as good? I’m happy to report that Rayman Legends is every bit as smooth, crisp and precise as Origins before it. The platforming is flawless and smooth. The game just seems to have a flow to it that sucks you in and pushes you to keep going, even after Rayman gets blown up for the umpteenth time.

But of course you’re here to find out what makes the game unique on Wii U. In the demo that I played through a Ubisoft representative took control of Rayman via the new Wii U Pro controller and I controlled the new partner character, Murphy with the Wii U Gamepad. When playing as Murphy you are tasked with cutting vines, holding enemies and rotating platforms (via the Wii U’s motion sensors) to help Rayman on his way. Now we’ve seen this kind of co-operation before in games like Super Mario Galaxy, Rayman Legends takes it to a whole new level.

The entire experience of playing as Murphy felt more like its own unique game. Sure you do some pretty standard stuff like help make platforms, but throughout the demo I was surprised at how much gameplay there actually was. Playing as Murphy was a frantic experience where just keeping up with Rayman was a challenge, then when you factor in all the various gameplay types that playing Murphy entails you will quickly see that Murphy can be just as fun as Rayman. You will do everything from smack enemies around to fling fireballs at dragons with a giant slingshot.

Once I finally put the controller down and walked away from the demo station I left convinced that Ubisoft is about to deliver the definitive Wii U launch title. While my time with Rayman Legends was short it’s clear the Ubisoft is sitting on something very special here, not only does the game look fabulous and plays great but the Wii U Gamepad adds a whole new meaning to two-player co-op.

Keep checking in on gamrReview.com for all your E3 2012 coverage.

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