Rayman Legends Retold Review: The Limbless Hero Is Back, Just Not Quite Yet
Okay, quick confession before anything else. If you came here looking for a big number at the bottom of the page, I’m going to let you down a little. Rayman Legends Retold was meant to launch on October 1, 2026. Then, on September 14, Ubisoft pushed it to December 3, 2026 – even though the game had already gone gold. So as of today, Metacritic lists zero critic reviews, and nobody outside the studio has played the final build.
So what is this, then? Think of it as a review in progress. Press got hands-on time in June and again on September 22, and the second wave of impressions is honestly pretty telling. I’ve gone through those previews, the developer interviews, the tech breakdowns and a fair bit of fan chatter from forums and comment sections. The result is an early verdict built only on what people have actually played and what Ubisoft has actually confirmed.
And look, that’s still worth something. Rayman Legends is one of the best 2D platformers ever made. Remaking it in 3D is either a smart move or a risky one, depending on who you ask. Let’s figure out which.
Wait, Why Remake Legends at All?
Fair question, and plenty of fans asked it the day this thing was announced at the June State of Play. The 2013 original still plays beautifully. Its hand-drawn UbiArt art style barely aged. Why not a new game? Or a remake of Rayman 2, which fans have begged for since forever?
Brand producer Loïc Gounon gave a surprisingly honest answer in a TechRadar interview this month. “The plan was that we want to restart the franchise,” he said, adding that “without an engine, you don’t make a game. Without a team, you don’t make a game.” In other words, Ubisoft needed to rebuild a Rayman team and get it comfortable on the Snowdrop engine before trying anything bigger. Legends, with its tight platforming and tons of content, was the safe foundation.
Here’s why it matters. Gounon also said “we believe that this IP has a future,” but tied that future to things going “according to plan.” Translation? If Retold sells, a new Rayman might follow. If it flops, well… we’ve been here before. That gives this remake a bit more weight than your usual fresh coat of paint.
So What Actually Changed Since 2013?
A lot more than you’d guess from the trailers. Ubisoft Montpellier, which made the original, teamed up with Ubisoft Milan – the Mario + Rabbids folks – to rebuild the game from scratch. The RayWiki fan wiki also lists Pastagames as a co-developer. PC Gamer’s Harvey Randall, who played around three hours back in June, stressed that this isn’t 2D art pasted onto 3D models. It’s a full rebuild, with re-scored music and tweaked levels.
| Feature | Rayman Legends (2013) | Rayman Legends Retold (2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Engine | UbiArt Framework | Snowdrop (visuals) with UbiArt roots |
| Look | Hand-drawn 2D | Full 3D, ray tracing on supported platforms |
| Hub | Painting gallery | Explorable 3D hubs set inside Rayman’s world |
| Worlds | Five main worlds | Five reworked worlds plus a new sixth realm |
| Story | Light, mostly text and silent scenes | Fully voiced cutscenes and a new villain |
| Music levels | Original set (Castle Rock and friends) | Returning levels plus four new ones |
| Travel between worlds | Menu-based | Dragon flight stages |
| Multiplayer extra | Kung Foot | Kung Foot Evo with power-ups and custom rules |
| Bonus game | None | Rayman Origins: Enhanced Edition included |
The hub change is subtle but kind of lovely. Producer Alessandro Arndt Mucchi told PC Gamer the old painting gallery is gone. Now the portals sit in the actual world of Rayman, so the whole thing feels like one place instead of a museum of level select screens.
The worlds also have new names. Teensies in Trouble is now Old Teensie Kingdom, Toad Story becomes The Stinkbog, Fiesta de los Muertos is Mystic Mesa, 20,000 Lums Under the Sea turns into Iron Shell, and Olympus Maximus is now Mount Elysium. Honestly, “The Stinkbog” might be my favorite rename of the year.
A Story, With Actual Voices
Here’s something longtime fans didn’t see coming. Retold has a real story. According to RayWiki, it centers on a small hooded figure who wields dark magic and spreads corruption across the Glade of Dreams. Rayman, Globox, Barbara, Grand Minimus and Murfy team up to save the Teensies – as always, the Teensies need saving.
And it’s fully voiced. David Gasman returns as Rayman, and Billy West, yes, that Billy West, reprises Murfy. It’s the first fully voiced Rayman game since Rayman 3. Will a talkier Rayman work? The Mercury News preview praised the voice acting, so early signs point to yes.
The Hands-On Verdict So Far
Let me explain how this section works. I’m not guessing. Every opinion below comes from someone who actually held a controller.
What the Preview Crowd Loved
The biggest takeaway? The platforming still feels like Rayman. CGMagazine’s Jordan Biordi, who played the Mystic Mesa world on September 22, said the game “feels quintessentially like its predecessors” while bringing Rayman’s world to life “in a way not really seen before.” That’s the whole ballgame for a remake like this. If the jumping had gone floaty, nothing else would matter.
Output Lag’s Steven Mills went in expecting to spend the whole session comparing old and new. That lasted about one level. “The paint is thick enough that I stopped comparing after the first level,” he wrote, and called the overall package a “steal.” He also played the invaded music stage “What the Duck,” set to a mariachi band of mushrooms, and described it as “the hardest four minutes” of his session but “an absolute blast.” That’s peak Rayman in one sentence.
Gieson Cacho, writing for The Mercury News, sampled six stages across several realms, including two from the brand-new sixth world. His summary was short and sweet: “addictive, fast and challenging.” He also flagged a guacamole puzzle level called “I’ve Got a Filling,” which is exactly the kind of pun I’d expect from this series.
The Rayman Legends Retold Review Worries Nobody Can Ignore
But it’s not all Lums and sunshine. Even PC Gamer’s Randall, who clearly liked what he played, admitted he misses the 2D art style. He still called Retold “a deeply gorgeous game,” so it’s less a knock and more a sigh. You know that feeling when a band re-records your favorite album? Better sound, sure. Still, something’s different.
His bigger concern was the dragon stages. In his June build, getting hit during a dragon flight cost you Teensies, and they’d get flung into the void. He worried that could annoy completionists chasing clean runs. To be fair, he noted those segments were still a work in progress back then, and Ubisoft now offers an autoshoot option for dragon rides. Whether the hit system itself changed, we don’t know yet.
A few other flags from the September wave:
- Polish: Biordi said the preview build still needed some refining, even though the core mechanics felt solid.
- Streaming lag: Mills played remotely and found the delay made aiming fireballs on the dragon course tricky. That’s a preview setup issue, not a game issue, but worth noting.
- Cut levels: RayWiki reports that some original levels were cut to keep each world consistent. We don’t know which ones yet, and for fans with a favorite stage, that’s a real itch.
New Toys Worth Talking About
Now, onto the fun stuff. Retold isn’t only a visual upgrade. There’s genuinely new content here, and some of it looks great.
The new sixth realm is called Land of the Livid Dead, and it has five stages built around a mechanic called Fairy Radiance. In practice, you fire off light blasts that interact with the environment. Cacho played two of those stages and came away impressed, so it sounds like more than filler.
Then there are the dragon flights. These replace the old menu hops between worlds with full 3D rail-riding stages. CGMagazine noted the camera shifts between third-person, top-down and wide scenic views. Mills described one as a proper race against a rival fire-breathing dragon, weaving through desert dunes, a kitchen, a giant taco and some clanking gear machinery. Yes, a giant taco. Mexican food is doing a lot of heavy lifting in Mystic Mesa.
He also fought El Luchador, the realm’s boss, in a wrestling ring that splits into three platforms. The trick? You climb onto his masked head when he leans in. It sounds silly, and it sounds exactly right.
Here’s the rest of the new pile:
- Four new music levels alongside the returning rhythm stages, plus 55 minutes of fresh music from original composer Christophe Héral and Grant Kirkhope of Banjo-Kazooie fame.
- Kung Foot Evo, a revamped version of the cult-favorite soccer mode, with a bigger arena, better controls, new power-ups and custom rules.
- Four-player couch co-op, same as before, because Rayman chaos is better with friends.
- 70 costumes across the cast, which is a lot of Globox fashion.
- Cave of Trials challenges, which Ubisoft describes as ongoing free content.
That Kirkhope collab is honestly the piece I’m most curious about. Héral gave us “Castle Rock” and the Black Betty stage. Kirkhope gave us Banjo-Kazooie. Putting them in one room? Could be magic.
Accessibility That Doesn’t Feel Like an Apology
This one deserves its own spotlight. Ubisoft showed off a long list of accessibility options on September 22, and it’s more thoughtful than most platformers bother with.
The two headliners are Fairy Blessing and Golden Heart. If you keep dying at the same checkpoint, Golden Heart spawns and gives you one extra protective hit. Keep struggling and Fairy Blessing kicks in: it blocks damage, lets you fly, lets you pass through breakable obstacles and revives you and your floating co-op buddies. You can switch it off or ignore it completely, so purists don’t need to worry.
Beyond that, there’s an Arachnophobia Mode, high contrast mode, object highlights, subtitle options, full control remapping, hold-or-toggle for running and gliding, and no quick-time events at all. Parents playing with kids, this is your jam.
Performance, Platforms and Price
Here’s where things get a bit spicy. For a game where you mostly run left to right, Retold asks a lot from PC hardware.
| Platform | What We Know |
|---|---|
| PS5 / Xbox Series X/S | Full release on December 3 |
| Nintendo Switch 2 | 60fps even in four-player co-op, 1080p handheld via DLSS, 4K output docked, ray tracing |
| PC – Steam listing | RTX 2060, RX 5600 XT or Arc A750; Core i5-8400 or Ryzen 5 3600X; 16 GB RAM |
| PC – 4K/60 Ultra | RTX 4080 or RX 7900 XTX with DLSS/FSR Quality upscaling |
| Storage | 33 GB on SSD |
| Streaming / Subscription | GeForce Now, Blacknut, Ubisoft+ Premium |
The Switch 2 version is the pleasant surprise. Ubisoft Montpellier tech director Thibaut Assandri told VGC the team had to “really push the limit of Snowdrop from 30fps to 60” to fit ray tracing in, and said the result is “quite on par with the Xbox Series S.” That’s a bold claim. We’ll see if it holds up in December.
The PC top tier, though? Wccftech flagged the RTX 4080 requirement as unusually steep for a side-scroller, and a lot of players agreed. Keep in mind it’s for upscaled 4K at max settings, not native. Most people with a mid-range card should be fine at 1080p.
On price, the Standard Edition is $39.99 and the Deluxe Edition is $49.99. Both include Rayman Origins: Enhanced Edition, which gets 4K visuals, new collectibles and quality-of-life tweaks – and it isn’t sold separately. Deluxe adds a Retro Pack with four costumes and an in-game Art Gallery. Pre-orders include the Hoodlum Havoc Pack, with two costumes inspired by Rayman 3. There’s also a retail-only Launch Edition with a printed Glade of Dreams map and lithographs.
One catch for Switch 2 collectors: the physical version is a game-key card, meaning the cartridge is basically a download pass. In Nintendo Life’s comments, one reader summed up a chunk of the crowd with “Game-key means skip.” If you care about owning a full cart, factor that in.
What the Community Is Saying?
Fan reaction has been mixed-to-positive, and it’s mostly split along one line: is this the Rayman we wanted?
On the positive side, the September overview trailer won a lot of people over. Nintendo Life even headlined its coverage as banishing “any lingering doubts.” New content, the bundled Origins and the $39.99 price keep coming up as reasons skeptics changed their minds.
On the other side, RayWiki notes pushback on a few character redesigns. Rayman now has separate eyes, and Betilla got a more realistic, goddess-like look – both drew grumbles from longtime fans. And then there’s the bigger complaint: some people simply wanted a brand-new game or a Rayman 2 remake instead of a second pass at Legends.
Honestly? Both camps have a point. Legends didn’t need fixing. But a new 3D Rayman needs a team and an engine first, and Gounon’s comments make it pretty clear this is step one. If you want Rayman 4, buying Retold is probably the most direct vote you can cast. Weird way to say it, but there it is.
As for the delay, reactions were more puzzled than angry. The game had gone gold, and Ubisoft’s official line was that the team wanted “extra time to make sure every detail gets the care it deserves.” December is a crowded window, but it’s also holiday season. For a family-friendly co-op platformer, that’s not the worst place to land.
FAQ
When Does Rayman Legends Retold Come Out?
December 3, 2026, on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch 2 and PC. It was delayed from October 1.
Is There a Review Score Yet?
No. Critic reviews haven’t been published, and Metacritic shows no score yet.
How Much Does It Cost?
$39.99 for Standard and $49.99 for Deluxe. Both include Rayman Origins: Enhanced Edition.
Is It Still a 2D Platformer?
Yes, the core stages still play side-on. The visuals are 3D, and the dragon flights move in full 3D.
How Many Players Can Play Together?
Up to four players in local couch co-op.
Is the Switch 2 Version a Real Cartridge?
No. The physical Switch 2 release is a game-key card, so you still need to download the game.
Are Any Levels Missing From the Original?
Some original stages were removed for consistency, according to RayWiki. The exact list isn’t confirmed.
The Early Verdict: Cautiously Legendary
So where does that leave us? Here’s my honest take. Every person who has played Retold says the most important thing survived: it still feels like Rayman Legends under your thumbs. On top of that, you get a new realm, dragon races, fresh music from two great composers, genuinely good accessibility options and a remastered Rayman Origins thrown in for $39.99. On paper, that’s a strong package.
The question marks are real, though. The 2D art had a charm that 3D may never fully match. Some levels are gone. The PC top-tier specs are wild, and the game-key card will turn some Switch 2 fans away. And until December 3, none of us knows how the final build holds up across a full playthrough.
So call it cautiously legendary. We’ll update our take once the full game is in hand – the Teensies can wait a few more weeks, right?
Every Teensie rescued is a small victory, and every share of this preview helps a small team keep rescuing honest gaming coverage from the void – so if it helped, send it across your social feeds and drop it into your bookmarks for December 3. Think of it as your co-op assist: you tap share, we keep playing, digging and writing. And if you’ve got a creative collaboration or commercial project in mind, the T-Minus team is only one direct message away.
