Rayman Origins - Platforming Legend Reborn

 "The best 2D platformer not called Mario" 

Rayman Origins is a platforming side-scrolling game with many elements of the classic Rayman involved. It was published by Ubisoft for PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360, Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita.

Plot:

In the Glade of Dreams, a world created by the mysterious Bubble Dreamer, Rayman, his best friend Globox, and some Teensie friends are chilling out. However, their snoring disturbs an old granny from the Land of the Livid Dead, who retaliates by sending an evil army of horrendous creatures and the Darktoons across the world, capturing the Electoons and Nymphs that inhabit the world and turning it into chaos. It is up to Rayman and his friends to rescue the Electoons, defeat the evil creatures and set everything right.

Gameplay:

Rayman Origins is a side-scrolling platformer, simultaneously playable with up to four local players who may drop in or out at any time. Players can choose to control either Rayman, Globox or two Teensies, with additional costumes available as the game progresses.

Players travel through each level, fighting enemies and rescuing imprisoned Electoons. As the game progresses, players gain new abilities such as running up walls, gliding in midair after jumping and shrinking in size which will allow them to reach new areas. Certain segments also sees players riding a mosquito, where players can shoot enemies or suck them up and fire them. If a character is hit by an enemy or obstacle, he will inflate into a ballooned state until another player can bring him back into the game by slapping him, similar to New Super Mario Bros. Wii, although players can collect hearts that will protect them from one hit. However, if all players are inflated simultaneously, or if a character is hit during single play, play returns to the last checkpoint. Throughout each level, players can collect gold-coloured Lums, and when a character collects a "King" Lum it temporarily doubles the smaller Lums value.

In order to progress through certain parts of the story, players need to free Electoons. Each level has hidden puzzle-like segments where players must solve varying difficulties of puzzles in order to free the caged Electoons at the end. More Electoons can be earned by collecting a certain amount of Lums within a level, with players being awarded a medal if they collect all the Lums. After certain levels are completed, players can access a time trial mode in which they must race through the level as quickly as possible to earn more Electoons, with trophies available for the fastest time. Players can also unlock special 'treasure chest' levels, in which they must chase a runaway treasure chest across a dangerous course. Completing these challenges gives players ruby colored "teeth" which, when players have collected all of them, grant access to an additional world, called The Stars of the Livid Dead Tour.

The game is the first title to use UbiArt Framework, an in-house graphics engine. These development tools allow artists to easily create content and then use it in an interactive environment. The artists only have to pose the model and edit the silhouette - UbiArt software takes care of image distortion automatically. The main aim of this engine is to allow artists and designers focus on the art itself, without having to worry about technical aspects of game development. According to Yves Guillemot, only five people were working on the game when it was first announced. Ubisoft has acquired a financial subvention from French government dedicated to supporting art for developing UbiArt tools. The engine is optimized for HD resolutions, allowing games to run in full 1080p HD at 60 frames per second.

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