Wii U owners were pretty disappointed when Ubisoft announced that they were pushing Rayman Legends back into September. It was originally scheduled to hit the Wii U back in February but Ubi decided to hold it back until they could release it for all three systems at the same time. I understand the logic. One marketing budget and distribution on systems that actually have a decent install base. It still sucked for Wii U owners like myself who had played the hell out of the demo and were excited for the full game.
There was quite a bit of backlash from gamers and even the game’s developers. Ubi decided to release something called Rayman Legends challenges to Wii U owners for free as a sort of olive branch. It’s out now and you can grab it from the Wii U eShop. It’s an interesting little “app” that serves up daily and weekly challenges and lets you compete with other players on a worldwide leader board. The real star of the game for my family is the Murphy’s Dungeon level. This level plays to the strength of the Wii U by having one player racing through the level on the TV while a second player manipulates the platforming via the Wii U gamepad.
My wife and I played the shit out of this level over the weekend trying for hours to get the best score we could and claim a gold trophy. For me it’s a classic platformer with incredibly tight controls and beautiful graphics. For her it’s a touch based game similar to something you might play on the iPad. She is using the stylus to grab platforms and slide them into place so that I have something to land on. She is cutting ropes to drop hanging obstacles out of my way and drawing paths to convert trails of “Lums” into more valuable collectables. I’m running as fast as I can through the level leaping out into chasms and jumping towards fireballs trusting that she will push the platform to where I need and and stamp out the fire before I get there. It is Awesome.
I have been married to my wife for 13 years and I cannot remember a time before this weekend that we un-ironically high fived. When we finally got the gold trophy we leapt up and slapped hands like two dudes at a flag football game. I will say that it took us hours of trying the same level over and over again before we got there though. There was a lot of communication that had to happen. “is it better for you if I leave this platform up or down?” “Should I run through this part or slow down before I jump?” There was were mistakes made by both of us. “Sorry, that was my fault I missed that wall jump.” “Crap I didn’t lower that spike wall in time, my bad.” and there were a couple (joking?) threats of divorce. At the end when we had the gold trophy I tweeted that it was the greatest thing we had ever accomplished as a couple. Someone asked about our kids and I said I was including the kids.
Personally I think they should change the name to Rayman Legends Relationship Challenges.
-Gabe out
