Developer: Ubisoft
Platforms: PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U, PC
Genre: Platform
Rating: 10+

There can sometimes be a little game snobbery at 2D platformers, looking down at these kind of games like they belong back on the Mega Drive and Super Nintendo with the likes of Sonic and Mario. However you will be hard-pressed to find a more blissfully addictive and joyfully fun game that you've played in some time.

Rayman and his buddies have been asleep for 100 years, and during that time the bad guys have returned to power and kidnapped a few princesses. So you and your buddies have to ... beat the bad guys and un-kidnap the princesses, and that's it pretty much. But as you jump across the five different unique worlds, each split up into smaller levels, none of that really matters.
Beautifully animated with a spot-on soundtrack, fantastically ramped up abilities with an oddly suitable level of sleepy controls (it always feels like Rayman is reacting one second late to your commands, which perfectly captures his character), as you blast from one end of every stage to the next, busting free captured animals and breaking open the heads of the big bosses, this is old school gaming made with current generation technology.

Once you've finished the game first time round, there are the chances to replay the levels with your new improved skills with a new approach, in the hopes that you can get a higher score and unlock new, previously hidden stages.

It makes you wonder how it is that nobody has successfully managed to make a good modern Sonic gam, and the answer may be due to trying too hard. Pushing games out into the world of 3D and super-fast gameplay just for the sake of it doesn't work, and thankfully it's not something that the makers of Rayman have been tempted into.

A perfect, uplifting palette-cleanser in a summer of overtly violent shoot 'em ups. Highly recommended.

Rent Or Buy: Buy
Presentation: 5 out of 5
Gameplay: 5 out of 5
Replay: 4 out of 5
Overall: 5 out of 5