Last year, Ubisoft released Rayman Origins, a platform game that had Rayman, Globox and a pair of Teensies running, jumping and punching their way through a set of incredibly pretty, though also incredibly tricky levels in something that was basically Ubisoft's take on the co-op platforming fun of New Super Mario Bros. Recently announced - and potentially also a Wii U exclusive, Rayman Legends is essentially Rayman Origins 2, and plays very similarly – but, as you may expect for a Wii U game, it's certainly got more than it's fair share of funky features.
Is it a bird? is it a fireball? Who cares... it's about to kill us!
Rayman Legends brings with it a new playable character, who may be more than a little familiar to people who've played the older Rayman games – Murfy, a very smiley green fairy frog creature, who's been specifically designed for the player who's using the Wii U GamePad. Controlled with the Touch Screen, he needs to work together with Rayman to get through levels – things like cutting vines that hold platforms in the air, operating a slingshot to send Rayman to another part of the level and rotating spiked traps by rotating the Wii U GamePad all make an appearance in the demo, and we'd imagine there's plenty more where that came from too.
With the ability to use four Wii Remotes and the Wii U GamePad, Rayman Legends supports up to five players too, with Rayman and his hopeless blue partner Globox making appearances in the demo. Who the remaining two characters are remains to be seen – in the first game they were two Teensies, but the characters you're rescuing during the levels look identical to the King of the Teensies from the first game. Perhaps it's just a coincidence, or perhaps there's been some nefarious plot to take the Teensy throne?
Add to this the Wii U exclusive features that were teased in a leaked trailer a couple of months ago, and it's looking like the Wii U version will be THE one to get - especially if you're keen to show off all the new features of your funky new console. Making use of the Wii U GamePad's NFC reader/writer, you'll be able to scan in various figures to make things happen in the game, such as a heart to restore health, or even a Rabbid, or Ezio from Assassin's Creed. There were no mention of these features at the Electronic Entertainment Expo though, so whether they've been dropped (unlikely) or they're just assuming everyone already knows remains to be seen.
They're BWAAAAACK!!!
That's about all we know on Rayman Legends so far – but with this week being the Electronic Entertainment Expo and everything, we're imagining there'll be much more coming out soon in the coming weeks. And if not more on Rayman Legends, there's definitely going to be more coming on Nintendo's new home console, the Wii U, with their press conference this evening.
