Rayman Legends

Rayman Legends is phenomenal. If there were any justice in the world, other developers planning to create platformers would be required to play it by law to learn its ways.

You've no doubt already scrolled down to the score, and are now scratching your head. If Rayman is destined to be my personal game of the year, why isn't it a 10/10?

Unfortunately, the PS Vita version of the game is an inferior take on the title. It's still great, but touchscreen woes and technical issues hold it back from matching its console-based brethen.

Rayman has been asleep for 100 years following the conclusion of Rayman Origins. Now the baddies are back in full force, and he's arisen to deal out the pain once again.

This involves bombing your way through the most gorgeous, colourful, personality-filled levels, saving the world and restoring the balance once more.

As with Rayman Origins, Rayman Legends works for a number of reasons. First, the controls are absolutely spot-on, and feel wonderfully tight.

The game is also very forgiving, so that when you die you're thrown back only ten seconds or so. It's still a challenge, though - especially on the later levels, as the game focuses on finding the hidden prisoners and saving them.

And Rayman Legends's levels are just so meticulously designed. The world is even more exciting than the one in Origins - Legends even contains my own personal "Level of the Year", in the form of Castle Rock. Just wait until you play it.

Besides the massive variety you'll find in the main set of levels, Rayman Legends throws tons of additional content at you - and barely any filler.

Daily and weekly challenges are available, which pit you against the rest of the world as you run, jump, and punch as quickly as you can.

Trophies are then handed out to add to your "Awesomeness" meter - these can be earned as part of the main game too.

Elsewhere, you've got creatures to collect, tons of levels from Rayman Origins to play through again, and heroes and princesses to save.

Finishing the game will take you a good ten hours, while collecting everything will add another four or five. Rayman Legends is a massive game.

The phrase "Plays best on PS Vita" gets thrown around a lot these days. In this case, it's not true.

Rayman Legends on PS Vita is a cut-down version of the Wii U edition. All the touchscreen based Murfy levels are here, including some additional ones made especially for Vita.

But they don't work as well as on the Wii U, since the Vita's screen is smaller that the Wii U GamePad. This means you can barely see what you're doing since your finger is always in the way.

It's possible to switch to the back panel, but this is just massively fiddly. In the end, I found myself sighing whenever Murfy would appear - these levels are just not very fun.

The Vita version falls down in other places too. It's missing the Invasion levels from the console version, which are some of the best levels in the game (an upcoming patch will apparently add them in, but we don't know when), and there's also sizeable slowdown problem at random moments throughout.

If you only have a PS Vita, then it's definitely worth picking up Rayman Legends for the handheld - it's still a fantastic game. It's just a shame that sub-optimal porting has taken the sheen off this platforming gem.