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Rayman Legends Switch review: Definite Edition lacks polish

£25.99 - Nintendo Switch - Ubisoft

Jack Shepherd
Wednesday 18 October 2017 16:10 BST
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For a while, Rayman Origins marked the Golden Standard for modern 2D platforms — a colourful experience that was stylish, challenging, and delightfully fun. Only New Super Mario Bros. could compete, but that game couldn’t match the freshness of Origins. The sequel, Legends, released in 2014, then improved on the formula, once again making for an exceedingly fun adventure.

The release of Legends on Switch, three years after being released on almost every console imaginable, comes with little expectation. For the Definitive version, Ubisoft has added basically zero content apart from now featuring every character on one console and new local tournament play for Kung Foot. That’s about it.

To therefore earn the ‘Definitive’ title, you would expect Legends on Switch to play better than any other previous version. Unfortunately, the opposite proves true. The Switch version miraculously plays worse, running less smooth, the loading times almost doubled. Due to this, Legends loses the speed that made the initial iterations so great, detracting somewhat from what should be an excellent experience.

Of course, that’s not necessarily a game breaker. The definitive addition has the same levels, all brilliantly designed with popping colours and fun enemies. For those looking to take the game portable, Legends works well on the Switch screen — better than on PSVita — making for a worthy tube companion. Plus, with the JoyCons, you can play local co-op on the move.

Really, though, for those who have played Legends through over and over again, collecting every Lum the first time around — someone such as my obsessive self — there’s little reason to purchase the Definitive edition. Even for those newcomer to the game, I would recommend turning to the PS4/Xbox One version. Those two versions are absolutely excellent and much cheaper.

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