Our final hands-on impressions of Rayman Legends Retold before launch

There are some games where dying makes you want to put the controller down. Rayman Legends Retold isn’t one of them.

After getting more hands-on time with Ubisoft’s upcoming platformer, I’ve found myself thinking less about how often I died and more about how much fun I had getting back up and getting a little further each time. Rayman Legends Retold can be a challenging game, and sometimes brutally so, but there’s something remarkably satisfying about throwing yourself at a difficult section again and again until your hands finally figure out what your brain has been trying to tell them. Rayman has always been the kind of game that makes you understand that failure leads to progress.

During this second preview session, I was able to explore several more areas and take on a collection of new levels. There was plenty to see, plenty to collect, and plenty of opportunities to discover new ways to move through each stage. But the moments that stuck with me most were the ones where the game simply knocked me flat and dared me to try again. And I happily did. If I can tell you anything? You’re going to die – and a lot. Most interestingly, you can choose to cut your teeth on Rayman Origins Enhanced Edition, which Ubisoft is including with this game as a bonus, or dive right in to Legends Retold.

Rayman Legends Retold is a game that doesn’t seem particularly interested in making sure you succeed on your first go. That’s a good thing. Platforming challenges increasingly became exercises in learning through repetition. I’d reach a section, make a mistake, fall, get flattened, or otherwise find a creative new way to fail. Then I’d start over and try again. But that second attempt was never exactly the same. Maybe I had figured out when to jump. Maybe I’d discovered a better way to approach an enemy or use a tool. Maybe I’d learned how to use the environment to maintain momentum. Sometimes I simply knew what was coming this time. The important thing was that I was learning. That makes Rayman Legends Retold surprisingly good at building stress tolerance. The game gives you permission to fail. You don’t have to be perfect. You just have to be willing to get back up. And when you finally make it through that section that has been destroying you? It feels fantastic. After taking on the Lucha Libre boss level, I was hooked, but that wasn’t even the best part.

The music-themed levels were easily some of the highlights of my second preview session. These stages capture something that I think Rayman does particularly well: turning movement into a rhythm. Running, jumping, attacking, and navigating obstacles begin to feel less like a series of individual inputs and more like one continuous motion. When everything starts clicking, the experience is an absolute blast. And that makes failure even more interesting. You’re not simply trying to survive a level. You’re trying to find the rhythm of it. Every failed attempt gives you another opportunity to understand that rhythm and figure out where you went wrong. Eventually, you stop thinking about each individual button press. You’re just moving. That’s when Rayman Legends Retold felt at its best.

The challenge is only one part of the experience. There’s also an enormous amount packed into these worlds for players who are willing to look around. During my time with the game, I found myself constantly looking for collectibles and exploring areas that weren’t necessarily part of the most direct path through a level. There’s a satisfying sense that there’s always something else to find. That gives the game another reason to encourage repetition. You might replay a level because you want to beat your previous attempt. You might replay it because you missed something. You might replay it because you now know how to reach a section that seemed impossible the first time. Or maybe you just really want to play it again. That’s a pretty good problem for a platformer to have.

During my hands-on session I was running and jumping my way through levels as usual, but I also had the help of a friend to pull levers and help activate platforms as I surged forward. Being able to do this while managing your own platforming has a bit of a learning curve (and is only the starting point to one’s death toll overall) but feels incredibly rewarding as you progress through a level – and that’s what this game really seems to do well. As I moved my way through underwater worlds rescuing a Teensie here and there and collecting Lums, I was really impressed by the environments and how levels seemed to flow. There are ways to get through fast, and there’s the slow approach of collecting as much as you can in one go. 

The second preview also gave me a chance to step into a completely new world, The Land of the Livid Dead, and this was probably the biggest surprise of the session. Dark, shadowy, and dripping with atmosphere, this new area immediately feels different from what I’d experienced previously. There’s a sense that there’s considerably more waiting to be discovered here, and unfortunately, I didn’t have nearly enough time with it to see everything it had to offer. What I did see, however, made a strong impression. With a darker tone than the lush island areas I was exploring earlier on, The Land of the Livid Dead is something I’m really looking forward to seeing more of.

This new world feels like a wonderful example of just how much Ubisoft is putting into Retold. It isn’t simply another collection of levels to work through. The atmosphere, presentation, characters, and level design all come together in a way that makes the entire package feel considerably more cohesive. After seeing more of the game, I came away with the feeling that Ubisoft really is going all-out with this remake. There are so many different things to see and experience that even a preview session can only scratch the surface. And honestly, that’s one of the most exciting parts. Every time I thought I had a pretty good idea of what Rayman Legends Retold was going to throw at me, the game had something else waiting around the corner. 

And then there’s the presentation. Rayman Legends Retold continues to impress with its fully 3D approach, particularly in its cinematics and character animation. The characters look fantastic, and the animated sequences have a movie-quality level of visual polish. There’s something particularly charming about seeing these characters brought to life with so much personality. The cinematic presentation doesn’t simply feel like something placed between levels; it helps make the world feel like a cohesive animated adventure. This is where Retold’s approach to the original game really stands out to me. It’s not merely taking the existing experience and making everything prettier. The presentation gives the adventure a new identity, leaning heavily into cinematic storytelling while still maintaining the fast, playful platforming that makes Rayman so enjoyable. It’s peak digital storytelling. 

The inclusion of Rayman Origins: Enhanced Edition, which we also got to spend a bit of time with, feels like Ubisoft really is going all in wanting to get Rayman back out there as a platforming series. Remember this is a free bonus for anyone that purchases Rayman Legends Retold. Leaving the session, I felt excited to see more.

It’s worth remembering that this is still a work-in-progress preview build played through a remote session. Ubisoft notes that the demo I experienced isn’t necessarily representative of the final game, and the remote setup itself was streamed at 1080p with the possibility of lag or other streaming-related issues. That makes this an impression rather than a final judgment. But my impression is a pretty simple one: I had a blast.

Rayman Legends Retold can be challenging. You’re going to miss jumps. You’re going to get hit. You’re going to die. Sometimes you’re probably going to stare at the screen and wonder how you’re ever going to get through a particular section. Then you’ll try again. And you’ll get a little farther. Then you’ll try again. Eventually, you’ll make it. And you’ll probably want to do it all over again. That’s what makes the challenge work. Rayman Legends Retold doesn’t make failure feel like the end of the experience. It makes failure another step toward understanding the game, mastering its movement, and finding that satisfying rhythm where everything suddenly clicks. Sometimes getting knocked down is exactly what makes getting back up so much fun. I can’t wait to do it again.