Rayman Legends Retold: why remake the one Rayman that didn't need it?

After thirteen years of radio silence, Ubisoft is giving us Rayman back. And to celebrate, the publisher chose to remake the one entry in the series that asked absolutely no one for anything.

Let's get this out of the way, because we won't pretend otherwise: Rayman, for us, is sacred. We wore out controllers on Origins, we know the Legends soundtrack by heart, we still defend Hoodlum Havoc as the peak of humor in video games. So when Ubisoft announces the return of the limbless hero, we want to believe. The problem is everything surrounding it.

What we know

Rayman Legends Retold is co-developed by Ubisoft Montpellier and Ubisoft Milan, for the franchise's 30th anniversary celebrated in 2025. Release announced for October 1 on PS5, Xbox Series, Switch 2 and PC, at 40 euros, with a remaster of Rayman Origins bundled in. One detail that matters: Michel Ancel, the series' father, is back as a consultant. That's not nothing.

Ubisoft promises "more than a remake", and on paper the pitch holds up. The game goes 3D, with a fully reworked art direction, a new world map, dubbed cutscenes and a real narrative thread where the original made do with a pretext. Rayman himself is redesigned, his eyes now dissociated in the manner of the recent Donkey Kong.

It's on the content side that things get interesting. A brand-new sixth world, the World of the Livid Dead, where Rayman wields a light-based power: five fresh levels and a boss to go with them. Dragon-riding sequences bridge the worlds, with just enough chaos to recapture the series' spirit (the dragons fart on command, and we won't complain about that). The musical levels, the backbone of Legends, are reworked with original compositions.

And Kung Foot returns as Kung Foot Evo, with a promise of added depth, all playable up to four in co-op. The original voice cast is kept for Rayman and Murphy, ensuring welcome continuity.

What worries us

Now, the awkward question, and it's a big one: why Legends? It's the most recent Rayman, the least dated, available on just about every modern machine, and its hand-drawn art direction hasn't aged a day in thirteen years. You don't remake a game that still looks like a tech demo for fluidity and style. Remaking Origins would have been debatable. Finally giving the 3D entries, Rayman 2 or Hoodlum Havoc, the treatment they deserve would have made sense. Remaking Legends solves a problem nobody had.

Worse: the move to 3D, which does give the environments more life, makes some 2D platforming sections less readable. And readability, in a precision game, isn't a cosmetic detail, it's the core of the gameplay. The Ptizêtres' new eyes also have a faintly unsettling quality nobody asked for. Replacing a timeless art style with "next gen" 3D is a gamble, and for now nothing says it pays off.

Reports from hands-on sessions don't help dispel the doubts. The Murphy levels, originally designed for the Wii U tablet and already shaky everywhere else, seem to return almost unchanged. Button mapping wasn't editable, with a default layout that forces you to let go of the jump button to trigger Murphy: enough to break the flow of a game built entirely around it. The target resolution and framerate haven't been communicated. And the first voice clips raise fears of dialogue more cringe than charming, even if trailer editing is rarely representative.

Add to that a Ubisoft caught in a storm since 2025, churning out remakes (Black Flag yesterday, Rayman today) rather than new games, and the doubt sets in: what if all of this is just a cautious trial balloon to measure interest without taking the slightest risk?

We're waiting, but with a hand on our wallet

That's our problem, and it's an honest one: we want to love this game. The new content is real, the world of the living dead intrigues us, the dragons look fun, Origins thrown in for 40 euros is a genuine offer, and knowing Ancel is around is reassuring. As fans, we'll enjoy ourselves, we already know that.

But we can't silence the little voice repeating that we'd have preferred a new game. Ubisoft hinted that this new visual identity would be the first stone toward the franchise's future. If that's true, if Legends Retold is just the stepping stone to the Rayman 4 we've awaited for over twenty years, then we'll happily forgive its imperfections. If it's just one more remake to refill the coffers, our hearts will be heavy.

So we're waiting for this game. One eye full of hope, the other wary. And the controller within reach, just in case.