When you think of side-scrolling platformer games, the conversation tends to begin and end with Mario. However, Ubisoft has quietly turned the Rayman franchise into the standard-bearer for the genre while Nintendo stagnates with Mario (and their other first-party franchises).

The latest entry in the franchise, Rayman Legends, has racked up massive critical acclaim. While Rayman Origins was considered a very good game, most critics find Legends to be an improvement over Rayman Origins. Perhaps more exciting is that the game has new ideas which is pretty impressive considering that the genre is one of the oldest in gaming.

Eurogamer (100%): It represents the platform genre at its best. Not only does each new level bring fresh delights, but each new inch of screen that scrolls towards you will inspire grins and grimaces in equal measure. The Rayman series has endured more through Ubisoft’s corporate determination than anything else, but with Legends this perennial runner-up earns its place alongside the likes of Super Mario Bros. It’s that good.

Edge Magazine (90%): This is one of the most jubilant, vividly imagined and open-hearted platformers to come along in a long time. To play it is to vicariously experience the development team’s abiding love of videogames, and to be reminded why you love them too… It may well have been a great game at its initial deadline, but the staggering level of detail in its amplified incarnation helps it run rings around its already estimable predecessor.

God is a Geek (90%): It’s not perfect, no, but it brings such joy to the player that it’s impossible not to fall utterly, head-over-heels in love with it… You can scrutinise it to the nth degree, but its charms will always overcome everything in the end, and with enough fresh ideas (whilst borrowing from Origins), Rayman Legends is an absolute must-own game, if only for the wonderful asynchronous multiplayer and incredible music levels.

Destructoid (85%): Rayman Legends is occasionally flustering, and sometimes seems to demand more than a conventional controller is capable of. The surprisingly slapdash jury-rigging of Wii U features on other systems is glaring in its inelegance, too. However, we’re still left with an impressively designed platformer that proves itself a worthy followup to Rayman Origins, making a few notable omissions, but adding some excellent new ideas of its own. Charming, funny, and only sometimes exasperating, Rayman Legends is the kind of game that makes this industry a better place for its existence.

VideoGamer (80%): The overall aesthetic in Legends however doesn’t match the magic of Origins, but this isn’t an overly negative point: it’s like trying to compare Disney to Pixar. Stand-out moments ensure it never feels average, and the quantity of stuff to do puts Origins to shame.