Rayman Legends Retold Preview

We were invited by Ubisoft to get a very early look at Rayman Legends Retold, the upcoming remake of 2013’s Rayman Legends. It’s very much still a work in progress, and there were some features that we couldn’t check out, but for over an hour we returned to the Glade of Dreams.

Fun fact: the first Rayman game I played was Rayman Legends — that was after I was invited to this event, though, as I figured that I should play at least one of them. The first game in the franchise came out while I was 12, and when I eventually got some spending money I was more interested in 3D than 2D, so side-scrolling platformers weren’t catching my eye.

This is the first Rayman game not starring Rabbids since, well, Rayman Legends in 2013. It’s been in development for two years by Ubisoft Montpellier and Ubisoft Milan, and the presentation kept saying that they had a vision for this remaster/remake.

Not to bury the lede, but it’s hard to say whether Retold is a remaster or a remake, because it’s a bit of both, as the aforementioned “vision” appears to be “the levels were fine, change everything else”. The levels are all familiar if you played Legends, but there is a new story, cutscenes, a whole sixth world, and for the transitions you ride a dragon through hostile territory. Also, it’s all made in 3D graphics instead of 2D, thanks to Ubisoft’s Snowdrop Engine.

The feature that was given the most attention was the dragon-riding levels. They play like a shoot-‘em-up, with the dragon constantly flying forwards and relying on you to dodge obstacles and shoot fireballs at enemies and obstructions. I only got to play two of them, but there appears to be one for each of the six worlds, showing off the Glade of Dreams as you fly along. It helps the world be a bit more cohesive than in the original version.

The whole game can be played with up to four players in couch co-op, including the Kung Foot Evo mode, which I didn’t get to play. I also was only able to play solo, as, again, the build was still from early in development.

David Gasman and Billy West are amongst the cast of voices returning to put words in our heroes’ mouths, and new music from composer Christopher Heral with Grant Kirkhope will also delight your ears. From what I played, it’s already sounding great.

The graphical update is decent, and the cutscenes are a welcome addition. However, if you’re the type of person who skips them, there isn’t much reason to get this over the original game. I also saw no evidence of the Rayman Origins levels that you can unlock in the original, so while a new endgame is going to be present, it might be missing content in the long term.

Rayman Legends Retold is coming on 1st of October 2026 for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2, priced at £39.99.