When Rayman Legends first launched back in 2013, it was very well received and widely considered a standout platformer of its generation thanks to its vibrant art style, inventive level design, and infectious soundtrack. Now, more than a decade later, Ubisoft is hopefully bringing the magic back with Rayman Legends Retold, reimagining the classic adventure for modern hardware while preserving the heart that fans fell in love with.

After spending around 2 hours with a pre-beta build of Rayman Legends Retold through a special online hands-on opportunity from Ubisoft, we got a first-hand look and feel of the upcoming title. Depending on whether you’ve played this before, its impact may vary and raise the question of whether a remake is actually needed.

Rayman Legends Retold Hands-on Preview

For the uninitiated, Rayman Legends was first launched back in 2013 during the PS3/Xbox 360 generation and received a PS4/Xbox One generation launch in 2014, featuring enhanced graphics and other additions. With gameplay similar to Rayman Origins, our protagonist travels across areas and worlds in 2D platforming action with the help of Murphy, a friend who can help Rayman traverse barricades, overcome obstacles, rescue the teensies, and more.

Rayman Legends Retold, worked on by Ubisoft Montpellier and Ubisoft Milan, brings a visual uplift to the game through the Snowdrop engine, and the switch to an immersive 3D art direction makes a huge difference. Worlds are more vibrant, there’s much more detail to everything, and it feels like a realization of a vision that was not met before due to technical limitations. It looks good, and seeing Rayman move around with smoother animations really brings everything together. Rayman Legends Retold will also be fully dubbed, elevating the auditory experience, especially bringing Christophe Heral and Grant Kirkhope along for the ride.

In our short time with Rayman Legends Retold, we only got to experience a handful of levels, but just enough to get a feel of what it can offer in terms of mechanics. We were brought through what seemed to be the interior of a castle in the Old Teensie Kingdom, lush forests, and a swamp-like level in the Stinkbog, along with treetops and vines, lots of collectibles, alternate paths, and secrets. The levels are varied and colorful, and really add to the charm of the game.

Some levels will have Rayman go through alone, but in most levels, he will be assisted by Murphy, a character who can manipulate objects in the environment by cutting ropes, activating switches, opening pathways, and more. Murphy’s presence adds a layer of timing and coordination to Rayman’s usual runs and jumps.

On one level, Murphy can flip switches to raise a wooden gate, lower wooden blocks to open a path to rescue a Teensie, rotate a mechanism to allow traversal, and even cut ropes so that Rayman can swing to the next platform, all with a press of the triangle button. It’s all rather straightforward, clearly indicated on the screen.

One other level had me time my use of Murphy as I approached these eye-like objects, which Murphy would close, so I could jump to the next area.

Apart from reaching the end of the level, Rayman will have to rescue Teensies, and rescuing enough of them will open up the next levels. There are also “Invaded” level variants, which you need to manually unlock using the Lums (currency) you have collected, and these are basically more challenging versions of the level with certain stipulations, like a time attack mode, where you respawn at the start of the level if you die.

Rayman is equipped with his usual bag of tricks, with wall jumps, hovering, and punching objects. Whether this expands later in the game remains to be seen. As this is a pre-beta build that was playable online, Rayman’s movement felt a bit floaty and less responsive than I would have liked, making some jumps and movements tougher to gauge.

This is probably not something to worry about at this time, and it will feel better in the final build.

Lastly, we got to experience a couple of Dragon Ride levels in Rayman Legends Retold, and it is exactly as advertised, with Rayman on the back of a flying dragon that can fire projectiles. One level was a sidescroller, while the other was a 3D level that gave chase to a giant frog on rocket boots. Surprisingly, it was a fun time, but also quite simple and straightforward.

It’s easy to see how charming Rayman Legends Retold is turning out to be, even with just the limited time and levels we tried out. Ubisoft mentioned that there will be new characters, new musical levels, 1-4 player local co-op, and even a new world, all of which we didn’t get to see or try out, so it would be interesting to see how things shape up as we move closer to launch.

Rayman Legends Retold launches on October 1, 2026, on PS5, Xbox Series, Switch 2, and PC via Steam, Ubisoft Connect, and Epic Games Store.