RipTen Review: Rayman Origins (Xbox 360)
Rayman: Origins is an odd little number. It’s a serious – damn serious – throwback to what games used to be. It’s an “old school” platformer if there ever was one. But what if it’s something more? Xbox Live and PSN and the internets are littered with “retro” games, nostalgic little numbers that hark back to a day when gaming was pure and simple. They’re all games of varying quality and the good ones do offer some semblance of what games were like back then. But what if Rayman Origins was different? Ubisoft’s latest doesn’t simply offer a gaming experience that mimics the gaming from my childhood, it is the gaming from my childhood. The simplicity, the mechanics, the difficulty – oh god, the difficulty. There are things in that game that I haven’t experienced for many years. Rayman Origins isn’t a tribute, it isn’t an homage. It’s actually a decades old platformer that’s been designed for the current generation of consoles.
I’m talking about time travel.
We’ve all been so obsessed with renaming French Fries to Freedom Fries, we’ve completely ignored the technological prowess of the French. Hell, the Large Hadron Collider is right there in Geneva, just outside of France. Maybe it was even used to bring Rayman Origins into the futu – look, I’m not a scientist. I don’t know squat about traveling backwards through time to retrieve older games. But what I do know is that I’m glad. I’m glad Michel Ancel has the balls to defy the time-space continuum in an effort to introduce a new generation to what platform gaming is all about.
Thank god they updated the visuals. You can’t just release a game from the past and expect it to compete in the graphics department. Ubisoft Montpeller have created a mind-blowingly gorgeous game. I’m going to go out a limb here, which is dangerous on account of my obesity, but in the four or so years that I’ve owned an HDTV, I think Rayman Origins might be one of the most beautiful things it’s ever displayed. And yes, I’m counting all of the naked ladies that have graced that screen. Even that hot blonde chick from Spartacus. You know, the shitty one that’s with that Claudius scumbag? Rayman Origins is vibrant and it just “pops.” It’s a complete pleasure to look at.
One thing that Ancel and his team of time travelers didn’t put a lot of thought into is how challenging games were back then as opposed to now. With a few exceptions (Ninja Gaiden immediately springs to mind) developers no longer put a lot of effort into a game’s difficulty. If I recall correctly, someone at Nintendo even mentioned difficulty no longer being a big concern. However, Rayman Origins does indeed have a Wii port. If someone who’s used to Kirby and Wii Sports and Mario Party gives Rayman a whirl, they’re going to drop dead in front of their television.
But for many people, that challenge will be the biggest appeal of Rayman Origins. I’ve been known to throw a hissy fit or twelve while gaming and Rayman Origins made me hate videogames, cartoons, and my stepbrother. He just sits there, watching me fail. That being said, with great difficulty comes great satisfaction once a particularly challenging segment has been conquered. Completing Rayman Origins, The Land of the Livid Dead in particular, made me feel like a goddamn king.
By far the most difficult portions of Rayman are the levels where you’re forced to keep moving at a rapid pace. I’m not talking about the time trials, though those are far from easy, but the levels in which the screen is forcing you along or you’re chasing something. These are the levels where you’ll die a couple dozen times in the span of five minutes, rip a clump of your hair out, dive back into it, and hate yourself. But again, these are also the levels that make you swell with pride once you’ve shown them who’s boss.
And then there’s the co-op, which plays a lot like the New Super Mario Bros co-op, in that all of your friends will cause you to die and then you will hate them. I played a good portion with my stepbrother, who normally won’t give a game the time a day unless it has fast cars or killstreaks. We didn’t do very well, and I spent a lot of the time hating him for it, but I still managed to have a lot of fun. It’s very, very hard to not get some sense of enjoyment out of Rayman, be it for the visuals, the humor, or what have you.
Sadly, I’ve heard from multiple people that they just can’t justify spending full retail price on a 2D platformer. Shame on you, all of you. You should drop to your knees and scream “take my money,” and then thank Ubisoft when they do so. Rayman Origins is a gem. It’s an absolute blast to play, fulfilling in the best way possible, and boasts a ton of content.
I have my complaints, of course. It bugs me that backtracking for missed Electoons is near impossible, forcing you to replay the entire level. And the difficulty curve is really, really sharp. One moment Rayman will feel like the stuff dreams are made of, the next an absolute living nightmare. There was a moment where I was hellbent on taking my frustrations out on Rayman’s score, threatening a close friend (and big time Rayman fan) that I would dock one tenth of a point for each consecutive death. Obviously, logic prevailed. Once I saw Rayman through to its end, I was a better person for it.
But I could’ve done it if I wanted to, Matt. I’m in charge here, not you.
Here’s The Rundown:
+ Amazing Visuals
+ Hilarious
+ Recaptures Fantastic Gameplay Once Thought Lost to the Tides of Time
+ Plenty of Content
+ Time Travel is Possible
- Sharp Upswing in Difficulty Will Catch Players Off Guard
– You’ll Spend a Lot of Time Replaying Levels
– My Stepbrother is Bad at Videogames
9 and 9.5 represent the pinnacle of the genre, a game that defines what that genre should be about. These scores are for games that you not only feel would be worth your purchase, but you would actually try to convince your friends to buy them as well.
Rayman Origins was developed by Ubisoft Montpeller and published by Ubisoft for the Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. The game was released in North America on November 15th, 2011 with an MSRP of $59.99. The copy used in this review was for Xbox 360 and was provided by the publisher. The game was played to completion, no thanks to my stepbrother.
