Rayman
My god is Rayman cool. Seriously – the opening scene of Rayman Origins where Rayman, Globox, and the gang are chillin’ to the max in the woods up against a hollow tree, tossing back snacks to the fresh forest beats of Rayman’s dense and wacked-out world is one of the most charmingly hip intro scenes around. Of course, the disruption of this moment by demented undead grandmas is hilarious icing on the cake, but you can go play the game for yourself if you really want to relive the memories.
Legends was a stellar followup, but I can’t help wonder what next-gen could do for the creatively abundant minds over at Ubisoft Montpellier. The UbiArt framework is awesome enough as it is, but I’ve no doubt that Michael Ancel and his convivial battalion have dozens upon dozens of ideas that they could toss into a next-gen Rayman that wouldn’t have been possible this time around.
Where to start – one of the first thoughts that comes to mind is the ability to have an obscene number of enemies onscreen at once. How cool would it be to see Rayman and Globox riding a literal, massive wave of enemy monsters, bonking as many of them over the head as possible, all while clawing their way above the waves to snatch at a supercharged jetstream of Lums, blasting overhead just out of reach? If you haven’t played Rayman then I probably sound certifiably insane right now: just know that what I’ve just described would be incredibly frantic and overwhelmingly awesome.
Beyond that… what about revamping Rayman’s look entirely? We haven’t seen polygonal Rayman since Hoodlum Havoc, and putting that visual style on hiatus for a while was definitely the right decision. But with the power of next-gen consoles? Well, Rayman Legends did get this awesome CGI trailer back in June – check it out below.
It may be a stretch, but what if Ubisoft went for a playable Rayman experience that looked and felt like the beauteous, Pixar-like world shown above? Seeing Barbara take down massive throngs of enemies with such ease in glorious CGI is captivating enough as a passive viewer, but actually playing an interactive equivalent? Now that would be truly next generation.
I kind of doubt reaching the above fidelity is currently possible, but there is an upside. It’s been said by many (Microsoft and Sony, namely) that the newest machines will receive a cloud-powered boost sometime in their lives, the results of which will be quite substantial. Could something like Project FLARE propel Rayman and other titles into the realm of Pixar-quality CGI? Only time will tell, but I sure hope so.
