The release of last year’s Rayman Origins left most players hungry for more (I was among them).  The game was rendered in UbiArt, a program similar to flash animation, which gave the Origins team the ability to make the entire game a beautiful, living, breathing  cartoon world.  Everything from the music, to the gameplay mechanics, to the art style was done top-notch, and I’d have to say it was definitely some of the most fun I’ve ever had in a sidescroller.    Now, Rayman Legends is coming to Wii U, and I couldn’t be more excited. Our preview is after the break.

This year, Ubisoft is releasing the second title in the series exclusive to Wii U, with even more attention to detail than in the previous game.  I know, I didn’t think it was possible ether!  The game has a handful of new features, including the entirely different style of gameplay featured on the Wii U Game Pad itself.  In co-op play, the player using the game pad will be put in control of Murphy, a little guy who flies around the screen helping other players out by moving objects and cutting ropes to reveal secret passageways and to just save our heroes from death traps.  Murphy is controlled via the GamePad’s touch screen.

Speaking of new characters, we have this awesome new chick who looks extremely similar to Betilla the fairy (the first semi-hot-girl-fairy-thing you save in the first game).  The badass thing about this new chick (her name’s Barbara by the way) is that when you’d be punching the crap out of a bad guy as Rayman or Glowbox, you’re mowing through them with an axe as Barbera. So yeah, if nothing else, you get two new freakishly awesome characters to play as in this sequel, which already makes this game 200% more awesome than Orgins.

Another new feature is the addition of the musical maps, levels in which all of the players must run across a forced scrolling screen, while killing baddies, jumping, dodging and sliding to the beat of a song.  Think of playing Rhythm Thief (3DS), but with full control over all of your actions and more room to fail.  All in all, Rayman Legends is shaping up to be a truly awesome sequel, and one that’ll be different from its predecessor, but only in good ways!