First made available on console last year, Rayman Origins came to the PC in 2012

, shattering any dissatisfaction from every PC owner that thought the games devel
oper made a huge mistake in 2011 releasing this game only for PS3 and Xbox. And
as it was to be expected, Ubisofts 90s mascot is still in top shape ready for his
new share of extraordinary adventures. But whats so different in this 2D platform
er?
Rayman Origins is somewhat special in a couple of ways. First of all, it is an o
riginal creation, not inspired from any other game, something rather rare these
days. Second of all, we're talking about a game franchise that goes way back, l
ong before all these dark world, zombie/terrorist/aliens/monsters games were eve
n created. Yep, it's a 2D wonder made to amuse and relax in a natural fashion. A
nd that's why this review was a pleasure.
Rayman Origins, the lost art of platform scrolling
Not too often we get the opportunity to talk about a platform scrolling game. Th
is days they kind of went out of fashion partly because of all these violent new
games and partly because for some years now, only Nintendo with its Mario franc
hise managed to keep this genre alive.

Still Ubisoft proved us wrong while we were pretty sure that they are unable to
think outside the box, (or if you like, outside the last years usual line of gam
es). In fact, this last iteration of Rayman has more fun and good looks than mos
t of the classical 3D games would ever hope to get.
You may have read about it and its true, the colors are one of the best thing abo
ut this game. It's a vibrant world, animated and full of all sort of funny eleme
nts. This is the kind of game that almost disappeared in the last years. And it
was wrong, damn wrong.
Feel the madness with Rayman Origins
Its a goofy world with goofy characters. Every stage is full of progressively dif
ficult challenges but in the same time, you dont get to feel that. Thats because a
ll the levels were designed to look different making you want to see more and mo
re.

And because every game has its own learning curve, this one had to be different.
So while in other games you get to find power-ups on every level, Rayman Origin
s has been built on a different concept. Every new level comes with its own abil
ity that Rayman and his two friends, Globox and Teensie learn and keep to the en
d of the game. And yes, its possible to return to previously visited worlds and c
reate mayhem with your newly discovered powers. So yeah, first he walks and runs
, then he attacks and somewhere further down the river he even learns to fly and
walk on walls, how about that?!? Now actually some of these powers were made av
ailable from the beginning in the previous titles but not to forget that this on
e is called origins so we have to assume that its the first one in Raymans virtual
timeline.
Anyway, from the deeps of the ocean to the heights of the Sky, the games main cha
racter will make you experience new sensations. Thats because youll go from shoote
r like levels to speed-runs and other challenges that will always keep you wired
to your PC.
Why to make Rayman a co-op thingy
From collecting Lums (kind of the equivalent of the coins from Mario) up to the
most challenging puzzles, Ubisoft made a game that feels light, easy to handle w
ithout any nervous tension what so ever. Still, theres nothing better in a single
player game than the multiplayer.

And speaking about Rayman, I must say that theres a bit of a difference between t
he single player and the co-op experience. Some of the games areas are not access
ible without having at least three players. And besides, collecting Lums is much
more effective this way as these virtual bonuses are shared between players.
Ups and downs for Rayman
As you can see, so far Ive done nothing else than to praise this extraordinary Ub
isoft creation, but theres more, much more to this story. Actually no, scrap that
because theres no big story, just some guiding lines to make you feel that youre n
ot a total stranger to Raymans world. And thats kind of a problem, but nothing rea
lly that big.
In fact thats kind of the only downer I found to this game, and in a space domina
ted by the rather violent games labeled M for mature, this Ubisoft small wonder
shines in the sun like a true jewel.
The graphics are sometimes nothing less than stunning but they would be incomple
te without the proper soundtrack, a thing that Rayman Origins doesnt miss. In fac
t the whole games is 100% animated both in the visual and the sound areas.
As for the gameplay, rarely did I see such a great set of controls. You will be
able to learn them quickly thus making the game even more appealing. And even if
youre a single player fan, dont think twice about inviting a couple of friends ov
er. This way it will be even more appealing, making you want to play again and a
gain.

raven