Rayman Origins (Vita) review "A Fun Action Platformer"

Finally it's here, Rayman Origins is a nice reboot to the original 2D side-scrolling platformer that makes his grand debut back in 1995 for the Sega Saturn, Atari Jaguar, and Sony PlayStation. For those who had missed the dearly loved UbiSoft mascot, Montpillier had finally brought him back with style after fading his spotlight to those lame Raving Rabbids of six years ago. Thankfully his return is a good one, something all good side-scrolling platformers should take notes of.

Graphics:

Amazing, even on the PlayStation Vita, these graphics shine with superb artistic values and realistic special effects. The levels themselves are a work of arts and the baddies in them are just as humorous and wacky as they should. Animations and colorful environments are superbly produced here, from the Jibberish Jungle all the way to that dreadful final world of the Livid Dead, you will be wow to see this in the palm of your hands. Cutscenes also had their own highlight visual treats and humorous presentation particular the opening intro and the scoring screen at the end of a level. Though not in HD, these visuals can sometime rival or even surpasses those of the console versions due to the clean presentation and well render environments. The new design for some characters even had the charming cartoony look that makes them enjoyable to play, also damn UbiSoft, those darn fairies looks hella sexy and hot.

Music/Sounds:

Like all the other versions, the music here are godsend to addictiveness, they are memorable, relaxing, calm, humorous, and breath-taking. It makes you want to hum them when playing. Also the sound effects and voice-works are spectacular as well, fist pound, head smash, and even the sounding of the character bouncing off spring platform makes the game feels bright and exciting all the way through, Rayman even sends a heck yeah peach sign to the player as well. The only minor knocker was that you must have headphone on in able to enjoy these wonderful tunes to their fullest as the PS Vita speakers doesn't do them justice outside the box.

Control/Gameplay:

Very simple, fun, and addictive. Since the control was borrow from the PlayStation 3 version, getting use to the basic way of playing this game is no problem. One minor annoyance though was the touch pad on the rear of the Vita sometimes gets in the way of playing but other than that the fun of the game is still the same. Also the gameplay is stunningly addictive, each level is vast, free-roaming and open, you could basically explore every nook and crappy it had to offered anytime you want for as long as you want. Rayman and the characters in this game also had their own arsenal of moves, techniques, and abilities to help them conquered the game so a player never feel like they are helpless, think of it as a beat 'em up mix with platforming in a side-scroller with a little touch of Metroidvania exploration sprinkled all over. The levels themselves are also never boring or straight forward (aside from a few auto-scroll and shooting levels) and you can always return to a previous area if you feel you've missed something. There's also a tons of hidden in-game areas to find and unlock so to uncover the secrets within the game. Also as a nice addition to some casual player, this game also allow gamer to use the Vita's touch screen to pop bubble that entrap Lums to collect them more easily, there are also some relic scattered throughout some level that player could use the touch screen for, it's a nice little addition to an already fun game. Boss battles are also creative and fun and offered a more challenging aspect to the wonderful gameplay. Also as you venture through the first level of each world, you'll come to learn new technique from fairies that will help you progress through each obstacles of that world.

Replayabilities:

It's worth noting that this port of the game, like the 3DS version, also lacks a co-op multiplayer mode so if you're expecting to Cross Play this with the PlayStation 3 version then you'll be heavily disappointed as both are incompatible, but other than that it still got all the fun replay values from a single player aspect. The levels are addictive and fun, you can try to collect those Ruby Teeth to get to the final world, there's still the fun Time Trial Mode so you could rank on scores and even send achievements to share with friends. It's a shame Cross Play isn't possible here but hey you get what you pay for I suppose.

Is It Worth Buying?

Well if you haven't already yet got any of the other versions or the 3DS version or if the PS Vita is your only portable, then yes this game is definitely a perfect game in your must-buy list. There's no doubt this is a fun and wonderful action platformer but the lack of co-op multiplayer or any kind of Cross Play feature makes this feel like just another port with tacked-on touch screen extra. If the PS Vita is your only system though don't hesitate to get this for your growing PS Vita gaming library.

Community review by leeko_link (December 28, 2015) A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this review, you can update your bio from the Settings page.