Which leads to my final point in why these levels are so incredible: the visuals influence the audio, as well. Without the audio, this level becomes frustrating and doesn’t seem to make much sense. The 8-bit remixes are incredibly hard, and would be near impossible without the musical cues. The player relies very heavily on what the audio is telling him or her, and this is an absolutely superb usage of audio.
So, how do you know which ones will hop out of your way, and which ones you need to jump over? Listen to the music! Notice the vocals pick up the visual cues in these moments, and without them, you would have to play off of sheer memory – which enemies jump out of the way, which you have to navigate past, and which obstacles you need to hit in order to progress. On this land are spiny enemies which can end your speed run very quickly. The music almost acts as a guide through each speed run, and there are a few moments that really emphasize how heavily the player relies on the audio cues.Īn example is on the fourth level, “Gloo Gloo.” There are moments when the player has to jump out of the water and run on small pieces of land. How do they do this? I previously mentioned that you can simply listen to the music in order to time your jumps and hits correctly. Which leads me to my second point for these levels: they enhance your skill in gameplay. Music highly influences the gameplay, not just the visuals. The powerful usage of visual dependence on audio in these levels is astounding, and blow me away every single time I play them. The hilarious kazoo solo in the middle of the song has you bouncing and jumping around, much like the solo you’re mimicking. Each musical “hit” during the intro of the song implies hitting enemies while you jump. If you know the song “Eye of the Tiger”, all you have to do is watch for what action you will be called to accomplish. When you play the game (I highly recommend it, by the way), the speed run becomes much easier due to the music. Or, perhaps you noticed a more familiar song on the third level, “Mariachi Madness.” When you watch that level play out, whether you realize it or not, your mind and inner rhythm are already working along with the audio/visual marriage, even though you aren’t playing it. Some levels have familiar titles, like “Mariachi Madness” using “Eye of the Tiger.” Without the music, this level loses a lot of its impact and affect on the gamer. The music draws you into the gameplay and the story the level is telling (you’re running through a castle that is burning down, all due to a pesky dragon wreaking havoc). Seems like a standard speed run with some nice art direction, but not much else, right? Now listen with the sound on and notice the difference in your attention. To capture what I mean, watch the first level, “Castle Rock”, with the sound turned off. Seeing the character jump when there is a break in the music, hitting enemies to crashes of cymbals, collecting specifically-placed Lums that correlate to a long guitar run or solo all of these things are a visual feast enhanced by the music.
Watched it? Amazing, right? Well, let me explain why I believe this is a shining example of why music and gameplay have become so intertwined, as these levels take the basic foundation between the two and enhance them tenfold.įirstly, there is the obvious visual effect that is displayed when watching these speed runs and listening to the music playing with them. That being said, before jumping into why these levels are some of the best I’ve played in recent memory, watch the video compilation below featuring every music level in Rayman Legends. I want to warn now that there may be some SPOILERS coming up, in case you wanted the levels to be a surprise. These musical levels are what I’m going to focus on, as they left an indelible impression on me long after I turned the game off. Rayman Legends looks fantastic, but the musical cues are second to none. What I didn’t expect were the amazing musical levels found at the end of each world. I expected a great platformer with creative ways to play and excellent animations fueled by superb artwork. I played Rayman Origins years ago, and marveled at both the music and art direction in the title, so it was only a matter of time until I was able to pick up its predecessor, Rayman Legends. When music is made into an interactive piece of software, it becomes something even more special. It brings people together to dance, it can make films even more impactful, it can speak to us in specific moments throughout our lives the list of contributions runs long. Music plays a very important role in many different mediums.
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