Rayman Legends Retold Hands-On: Ubisoft’s $40 Remake Is Gorgeous, But I Kept Asking Who It’s Actually For

The start of 2026 was the beginning of a new era for Ubisoft, kicking off in upsetting fashion with a "major reset" that reorganized the company into multiple Creative Houses and resulted in the layoff of hundreds of developers. As the company continues to mark down losses while trying to establish a new foundation, part of that new foundation means retreating back to a classic franchise well, with the reveal of Rayman Legends Retold.

It's a remake of the 2013 platforming classic Rayman Legends, with original developer Ubisoft Montpellier behind the remake alongside Ubisoft Milan, which comes as less of a surprise following last year's rumours that the Milan team was working on a Rayman remake. Legends Retold will be out later this year on October 1, 2026, and rather than having to drop $70 for the game, you'll be able to pick it up across all major platforms (PC, PS5, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series X/S) for $39.99 USD.

The company claims Rayman Legends Retold is "more than a remake," in a presentation I saw ahead of getting about two hours of playtime with the game, claiming that this project consists of two teams with a singular vision, to not just remake Rayman Legends, but "rebuild Rayman's foundations," which will deliver a stunning experience complete with ray tracing at 60 FPS on Switch 2.

How is it trying to do that? Well, through four pillars. A large, connected world to give players a better sense of adventure and exploration, its "immersive" 3D art style, a more ambitious approach to storytelling with entirely redone cutscenes, new voices (along with returning ones), great graphical and visual fidelity with the game built on the latest Snowdrop Engine, and new gameplay inclusions like an entirely new sixth world that also introduces new gameplay mechanics and online four-player co-op to go along with local couch co-op.

After only spending a couple of hours with (and I really want to stress this point), a work-in-progress build of the game, I, of course, can't say definitively if it accomplishes any of that. It is, however, at least pointed in the direction of doing so.

Rayman Legends Retold Hands-On Preview - Ubisoft Looks to 'Rebuild Rayman's Foundations' With New Remake

In Case You Forgot, Rayman Legends is a Really Good Game

For context, I played Rayman Legends a couple of times, in a couple of ways. Firstly, I played it briefly when it originally launched on PS3, though mainly I played it years later on Nintendo Switch. I'm also someone who would call platformers one of my favourite genres, and have a special affinity for 2D-flavoured platformers over 3D, though I love and will happily play both. With that said, Rayman Legends has never held an incredibly high place of prominence in my mind for what I love out of a platformer.

Yes, it's a gorgeously designed game and yes, it's a lot of fun, but I've never thought it to be 'one of the best.' Playing Rayman Legends Retold, even for just a couple of hours, was a reminder of why so many people hold this game in such high regard. You simply cannot deny it the credit that it's due, and perhaps it's my time away from it that is making me see a bit more of what I didn't before.

It's a really good game, and in case you forgot, this remake will more than remind you of that fact. Not that you need to spend $40 to be reminded of something you already knew, and especially if you already have the original game accessible for you to play at any point. Which is really the grating point of this remake. Rayman Legends still looks great, it still plays great. Who is this remake for? People who didn't play the original and, for some reason, don't want to bother playing it on one of their modern devices? Or fans of the original who just want this version for the online co-op, a fairly significant feature not included in the first game.

If you don't care about online co-op, though, and haven't played the original, it's on Steam. You can just play it on your supe'd up PC or handheld PC for that matter. This isn't similar to something like the Dead Space Remake, where the case for a remake is obvious. Or the penultimate remake example, Resident Evil 2 Remake. If you're someone who has no nostalgia for the original but does love a good platformer, you really have to consider whether it's worth spending $40 on this remake, or if you'd rather just wait for the original to go on sale for $6 (or less) as it regularly does.

You're still buying and playing a good game either way; you're just saving a few bucks with one option.

All that said, if the rumours are true and Legends Retold will arrive with a free copy of an enhanced edition of Rayman Origins, that certainly adds a lot of value. Those rumours appeared after I had played Legends Retold and seen a presentation from Ubisoft, and there was no mention of Origins then.

But again, that's another good game that already looks great, and is easily accessible on modern platforms. It doesn't entirely solve the value question for anyone, Rayman fan or not, as to whether Legends Retold is worth it.

Dragon Rides and New Worlds

With all that said, surely there are some things Rayman Legends Retold is doing differently, otherwise what's with the 'Retold' suffix? Those things are the aforementioned 2.5D framing with 3D elements, which does provide each level with more reasons to stare intently at the incredible art on display.

The music and audio design, which sees Christophe Heral return with Grant Kirkhope alongside him also sounds great, and Retold is once again a great reminder of how solid Rayman Legends already was. Sure, it didn't need the visual or audio update, but I'm not mad to see it get one, especially when it looks and sounds as good as it does.

I'm also keen to see and hear more of the new cutscenes with additional voice acting, though that was another element I didn't get to see much of in my limited time with the game. The music levels are also returning, as is the Cave of Trials mode and the Kung Foot mode under a new title, Kung Foot Evo, to mark its evolved form. Again, however, these were not elements I got to check out in my time with the game, but it is good for fans of Rayman Legends to know they can look forward to them in Retold.

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More than just a visual and audio overhaul, Retold adds entirely brand new gameplay features and mechanics not included in the first game that I did actually get to try out. That new element is the Dragon Rides that connect the regions. You'll hop on the back of a dragon that looks like something out of How to Train Your Dragon and fly through a series of obstacles you'll have to dodge or destroy to get past.

It's a charming spectacle that daisy chains the different regions together, though it was also one that I'm not sure I can say I got a full grasp of, mainly due to the fact that I was playing a work-in-progress version of the game, and because I was playing it remotely through cloud streaming.

My inclination is that it would feel much better running on my actual hardware and after it has been polished up for the launch version, but the idea of the rides is a solid one, and it's definitely a fun inclusion as a brand new element coming with Retold.

The other new gameplay element I didn't get to try is the brand new world made specifically for Rayman Legends Retold, called The Land of the Living Dead, where you'll be able to wield a new ability called The Power of Light. That's about all I learned about this new world in the presentation I saw ahead of my gameplay session, so it seems like details on this sixth world will be light until we're closer to launch.

Rebuilding Foundations by Going Back to the Beginning

Hearing from Ubisoft that Legends Retold was part of an effort to rebuild the franchise's foundations felt like a statement that goes beyond just Rayman. It's no secret that Ubisoft has been going through what has arguably been its most tumultuous period as it continues to record financial losses, and its aforementioned reset at the start of the year makes everything that comes after it feel like it's coming as part of the start of a new era for the company.

The original 1995 Rayman wasn't the first game Ubisoft ever released, but it has remained as one of its foundational and most iconic IPs. Whether or not it's meant to, Legends Retold also feels like the latest element in a portfolio reboot being pushed through this dire transition.

We still have a Splinter Cell Remake to look forward to, at least according to what we last heard. That was also the case for the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Remake, until it wasn't, and we had to settle for peeks at what could've been in reports mourning the cancelled project.

The upcoming Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is the heavyweight in all of this, as the Assassin's Creed series is the only one of all the franchises still getting remakes that has never lost a strong cadence of new releases. For the millions of players who love and play those games, there are also millions who've played enough of them for a lifetime. You can't say the same about the quantity of games in a lot of Ubisoft's franchises.

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So after years of either striking out or hitting doubles in the park of service games with titles that have longevity but clearly not the scale Ubisoft would prefer (outside of the home run that has been Rainbow Six Siege), perhaps Yves Guillemot and the rest of leadership felt the path to their own Fortnite was through their backlog. Remake projects that could help bring in young talent excited to work on the franchises they grew up with, that can help be foundational resets for IPs and go after the millions who'd written Ubisoft off as just the Assassin's Creed company, if they made it to market.

Or cancelled without much concern if one of its live service attempts really kicked off and captured those players anyway. It's not difficult for me to imagine, for example, a world where XDefiant succeeds and the team behind one of the upcoming remake projects is just turned around to work on supporting the new shooter. But since that hasn't happened, maybe one of these remakes shakes something loose and creates an opportunity for another service game. Maybe it becomes the service game for Ubisoft.

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All of that is just a theory, of course, fueled by the glut of remakes we're getting in the near and long-term future from Ubisoft, particularly if Black Flag Rescyned can launch the Ubisoft equivalent of what Capcom has done with its Resident Evil Remakes. And the fact that Ubisoft, like every major publisher not called Epic Games, never lost the drive to have a game as big as Fortnite in its portfolio.

Maybe it's the most cynical view to just see a remake of a beloved game as nothing more than a chance at reviving a franchise, not for a new mainline entry, but for a new live service reinvention. I'm not sure what kind of live service game you'd want to make from Rayman, but I'm sure it's been someone's job at Ubisoft to at least try to figure out what that could look like.

I'd much rather that not happen and we get another proper 2D Rayman platformer, though. Because if nothing else, Rayman Legends Retold is an excellent reminder of just how good Rayman Legends is. Now I'm just hopeful that the new levels in the sixth world can stick the landing, potentially being a sneak peek at what Ubisoft could do with a brand new Rayman game.

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