A game like Rayman Legends is a rare thing. It's not often, after all, that a video game can transcend the confines of its genre and deliver an experience so filled with whimsy and wonder that it transports you to another world entirely. Especially now that genre lines are so fimrly drawn, it's tough to find a title that can harken back to the joy that many gamers felt as their tiny little hands unwrapped a Super Mario World or a Pokemon for the first time. 

The biggest triumph of Rayman Legends, then, has to be its ability to transport gamers back to a time when games were simpler and more daring. The childlike wonder and contentment of titles like Nintendo's early Mario games, a sensation that's noticably absent from many of their recent efforts, is bottled so effortlessly in Legends that it almost comes as a shock. From candy-coated mountains to underwater spy bases, the creativity that drew many gamers into the hobby is alive and kicking inside of Rayman Legends. 

Creativity alone won't get you far in today's harsh landscape, though, and Legends developer Ubisoft Montpellier knows this all too well. 2011's Rayman Origins was a rock-solid platformer in its own right, but going back to that game after experiencing the streamlined and highly varied level design of Legends is nigh impossible. So much has been improved here, but in such a subtle way, that it almost feels like a different game. It's clear that the team in Montpellier learned a lot about level design in the two years between the titles, and as such the worlds of Legends flow much smoother that those of Origins. 

New and amusing level types include musical platforming stages that time the crescendos to your jumps and hits, forcing crackerjack timing on all your actions, and collect-a-thons that have you scrambling for Lums under a tight time limit. These levels, along with a series of vastly more creative level themes (the undead world, an underwater base, and a Day of the Dead world stand out as highlights), serve to lighten the burden of repetition that eventually set in when pounding through Origins' campaign. And it's a good thing, too; thanks to some extra development time, Legends is actually a much longer, more substaintial game.

A series of clever tricks will keep you coming back daily even after you've beaten the game. Certain playable characters are locked away until you collect a total of one million Lums, a feat that's not even close to possible on one playthrough alone. Each level is jam-packed with collectibles, too, and discovering the unique routes to get to each is as saitsfying as ever.

But the most devious system of all is the Lucky Tickets mechanic. By reaching a certain Lums threshold in each level, you'll unlock one Lucky Ticket. For beating one of the game's creative and challenging bosses, you'll get five. Lucky Tickets function much like lottery tickets; you have to scratch off the film using a coin (a weirdly satisfying mechanic in and of itself), and reveal your prize underneath. You can get Lums, collectible Teensies, levels from past Rayman titles, and, most intriguingly, Monsters. 

Your Monsters are viewable in a gallery. They each have different appearances and a different ranking in the bizarre heirarchy of the Rayman world, and depending on this heirarchy they will spit out a certain amount of Lums each day. Lower Monsters will only drop two Lums per day, while higher ones will drop up to 50. This mechanic, combined with certain characters who must be unlocked via mass amounts of Lums, will keep you coming back to the game daily to get everything.

Not that that's a bad thing, mind you. The act of actually playing Legends is more pleasurable than just about any 2D platformer I can call to mind since the greats of the SNES. This is a speedy, highly responsive game, and one that's not afraid to test you with some truly challenging, timing-based levels towards the end of the game. While Legends caters to all skill levels, there's an incredible satisfaction to beating the toughest the game has to offer. It can get brutal, but it's never unfair, and you're always in complete control.

With Rayman Legends, Ubisoft Montpellier has crafted a true classic of the platforming genre. It's been years, if not decades, since 2D gaming mechanics came together this smoothly in such a creative and challenging way. To all those who have ever fallen in love with a Mario or a Mega Man game back in the day (or, you know, a Rayman game) - head out now and pick this game up for yourself. You won't regret it.

Score: 10/10

This game was reviewed for PC