rayman legends
Last year, I was in the middle of playing Rayman Legends when my mum rang me to tell me my dad had cancer. Sorry this isn't going to be the usual game review.
I don't always pick up my phone when I'm playing games because it can be annoying to be interrupted (sorry mum). I did pick up the phone that day, left the game on pause in the middle of a level I was struggling with, I kept dying over and over at the same spot. My mum told me as soon as we had finished the how are yous (we both had terrible colds at the time). My dad's liver scan had come back and he had a 5cm piece of cancer buried deep within. They didn't know any more yet. We spoke some more on the phone, my mum asked if I was okay, I said yes through a lot of tears and then we said goodbye and I love you, all the usual stuff (my mum asked if my dad wanted to say hi to me but he couldn't just then). Then we hung up and I laid on my bed and cried for an hour or so. I made my dinner. I cried a bit more. I rang my girflfriend and cried to her. And then I picked up Rayman again.
It was waiting for me on pause, nothing had changed in the game but my whole world has shifted. Not to sound melodramatic but that is really how it felt. I had started this level not knowing my dad had cancer and by the end I knew he had cancer, and didn't know what was going to happen next. Rayman Legends rescued me in that moment by allowing me to shut my brain off from the whirling thoughts that had been driving me to hysterics for the last couple of hours. I finished that level. It was an insanely fun level once I'd mastered it. At the end of each of the story chapters (after you've defeated the boss) you're treated to a musical rhythm platforming section on the level's theme. The one I was playing 20,000 Lums Under the Sea (lums are shiny collectables) was an upbeat romp through water sections with flying sea creatures and swordfish, jumping and leaping and swimming all in time to a fast relentless beat. It was ridiculous and bright and packed with character. There wasn't any time to think about anything else. I didn't know these musical levels existed and they pushed me to go back to previous chapters where I'd given up on the boss fights (because I hate boss fights) and beat the boss just to get to the fun musical sections.
Rayman Legends is a good game, it has won many awards, so others agree, it's not just me. I haven't played others in the series but he's Rayman, I know him, he's the Playstation's Mario. He runs and jumps and punches. He saves teensies and collects lums. The artstyle is a beautiful handpainted backdrop. His jump is responsive and floaty in the right measure. The sound design is where the game really shines, not just the music levels but the little squeals of 'help me!' from hidden teensies, the mystery crowd that goes 'oooohhhhh' when you find a secret is just as satisfying the 50th time you hear it as the first. The levels are themed around clever game mechanics, that influence the art (Day of the Dead! Deep Sea! Swampland! Mount Olympus!) and platform challenges that steadily build without you realising it. There's plenty of replayability to collect hidden lums and perfect each jump. Everything comes together to make a great platforming game, full of depth for those who want to put the time in, and enough fun and flavour for those, like me, who want to skim along the surface.
I haven't played Rayman Legends in over a year, not through my dad's diagnosis and the sucessful operation to remove the cancer in his liver and his recovery. But I think of it still as the game that saved me when I needed to shut my brain off, in those first few days of shock, when everything was unknown — I could sink a couple of hours into Rayman and forget about everything else. Games, unlike film and books, don't give you the luxury of being able to wander off into your thoughts, they request total presence and Rayman drops you right into the action from the word go, no time to stop and think, only jump, float, punch and find that last missing teensy.
Rayman Legends is out now on PS4, XBOX ONE, PC and more
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