Rayman Origins

Date Acquired: I can't remember any more. Whenever Toys R Us dropped the price to $19.99.

Date Completed: 3.21.2012

Thoughts: Rayman has always been a very solid, if somewhat unoriginal platformer. It came out initially in the PS1 days, amid the glut of mascot platformers and was fairly well recieved critically. It's sequal is considered a classic, with subsequent sequals fairing not as well. As the platform fad died down, Rayman did too, becoming known these days for little more than mini game compilations. Cut to 2011 and Rayman received another shot at life, thanks to the 2D platform resurgance, almost all of that owing to New Super Mario Brothers Wii. It does seem that game is the direct inspiration for Origins, as it mimics the all-2D style and adds 4 player local (but not online) co-op, complete with putting your character into a bubble when he dies, waiting for your partner to pop it. It might be a pretty shameless rip off if the game itself wasn't so damn good.

Three things stand out in particular about this game. First, the visuals of course, are just gorgeous. They work very well as stills and even more so in motion. Many times while playing, I was just in awe of the game's artwork and could just stop and stare at it. Second is that it's a collect-athon, which traditionally is nobody's favorite way of extending the length of the game. And there is a ton to collect here. 6 electroons in every level, a time attack trophy in every level, 300 little yellow things per stage (there are more, actually but you need to collect 300 per stage to get an electroon), and a tooth that can only be culled from a special level in each world that requires a certain number of electroons to open. These levels are among the hardest in the game, and almost all of them required a good amount of trial and error for me to complete them. Which brings me to the third thing that stands out: the difficulty. The game starts out easily enough, even if you're trying to collect all the electroons, but the last few stages the difficulty ramps up sharply. The level that I originally thought was the last level, was brutally difficult, and I followed that up by completing all the special stages for the teeth, which unlocked the last final battle (and the only end boss battle that you get achievements for, so I consider it the true ending). This difficulty is not for the faint of heart, while many levels required a lot of attempts; I didn't find it too frustrating. I usually would get a little bit further every time, or glean something important that I could add into my gameplan. I never quit in frustration, the game did a great job of making me feel like the challenge was surmountable, and would put in checkpoints along the way so I didn't have to completely backtrack.

The natural comparison here is this game's muse: New Super Mario Brothers. So how does this game stack up? The multiplayer in Mario is better. It seems like it thought out the idea of 4 people playing at once better than Origins did. In New Super Mario Brothers you can put yourself in a bubble whenever you want, and let a more experienced player go on without you, but you don't get that option in Rayman. NSMB felt like 4 players playing together, in the way they interact and can strategize through a level. Rayman just kind of felt like 4 players playing at the same time, but not necessarily together. That's not to say the multiplayer in Origins is bad, it's not, it's fun, just following New Super Mario Brothers, it isn't AS fun as that game was.  Origins does, however, have by far the superior single player, in my opinion. The single player stages in NSMB felt fairly genaric to me, they never really stood out. Rayman's stages stand out, there is a good amount of game play variety. I loved the levels where I climbed aboard the mosquito and the game turns into a side-scrolling shooter. 

Final Thoughts: Rayman Origins is a fantastic game. Easily one of the most pure-fun games I played all year. I just bought the Vita version, so I plan to play through it again portably (earning trophies this time, of course). This is already a game I want to play again and again.