Ubisoft’s latest Rayman Legends demo, called the “Challenges App,” is now available on the Wii U eShop. As I started it up, I thought the level seemed familiar. And there’s a good reason. This new demo has the same three levels as the old demo! The new part consists of two new online challenges available where you can compete for the best time with players from around the world.
The first of those is called a Daily Challenge, so it presumably changes each day. Today’s challenge was called The Neverending Pit. The object is to collect 150 lums as quickly as possible. You’re basically falling the entire time, though you can slow your descent or grab onto rings and hang there if you wish. But you don’t want to spend too much time on any specific lums, because there are always more lums further down the pit. It shows the ghosts of other players’ previous runs as you play, so you can see what they may be doing differently. After your run is complete, it will show you your time and list some other players who you’ve beaten. Even though it’s nice to improve your best time and beat some other players, this daily challenge isn’t all that fun to play.
I then tried the Weekly Challenge, which was called Murfy’s Dungeon. While the object was the same (collect 150 lums as quickly as possible), the gameplay was completely different. In this challenge, you don’t control the character directly. You use the stylus and the touch screen on the GamePad to raise and lower platforms, pull levers, slice ropes, and eliminate some enemies that are in the way. This challenge is much more difficult than The Neverending Pit. It will take some repetition just to figure out what needs to be done at certain points. It also has ghosts that shows other players’ movements, but in this challenge it’s much less helpful and more distracting. Fortunately, you can disable the ghosts though. I thought this challenge was okay, but a bit annoying actually. I’m not sure a timed challenge is the best fit for a level where you don’t directly control the character and have limited interaction with him.
Overall, I have to say this Challenges App is a big disappointment. The challenges aren’t that fun and they certainly don’t make me want to buy the game when it comes out later this summer. Besides, the focus of a Rayman game should be on the main platforming levels. And the lack of any new levels in this demo is mind-boggling. Yeah, Castle Rock is still awesome, but are there going to be other levels that cool in the game? This demo makes me think they’re content spending their time and effort making falling-into-a-pit simulators instead of working on more fun, innovative levels like Castle Rock.