'We want to restart the franchise' Rayman Legends Retold dev on future of
the beloved series

Date:
Tue, 22 Sep 2026 16:00:00 +0000

Description:
How the team is approaching the upcoming Rayman Legends remake.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Rayman Legends Retold looks to bring the platforming classic into the modern age, with a smattering of new levels, fully revamped visuals, and expanded cinematics featuring full voice acting for the very first time.

Released back in 2013 to critical acclaim and still beloved by fans, it's certainly an unusual choice for a remake. Where most developers opt to return to titles with obvious issues, or ones that are no longer readily accessible
( Rayman Legends is fully playable on PS5 , Xbox Series , and Switch 2 via backward compatibility), it's hard to think of many ways this platformer
could be improved. As it turns out, the decision was more about the future of the Rayman franchise than looking back at the past. Latest Videos From TechRadar Watch full video here:

"The plan was that we want to restart the franchise," explains brand producer Loc Gounon after a recent hands-on event.

"Without an engine, you don't make a game. Without a team, you don't make a game. So the initial point has been: we need to rebuild the team, and we need to adopt a new engine. As we were starting to think about that, we also considered a brand new game, but we've also been humble about what we could achieve." You may like Persona 4 Revival plays fantastically, but I'm still not convinced it's an essential remake of Golden Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced review: a robust and beautiful remake of one of the best but not without flaws Broken Sword creator chose human artists over AI for all 55,000 new frames of animation in the upcoming 2 remake

In the gaming industry, remakes are often used to help new teams become acquainted with an existing intellectual property and build the skills needed to tackle development of future entries.

Just look at Metroid: Samus Returns , the 3DS Metroid 2 remake that led to series newcomer MercurySteam being given the reins for the Nintendo Switch installment Metroid Dread (and again, with the upcoming Metroid Ravenous for Switch 2). Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

Gounon adds that while the team behind Retold does still have some of the original Legends devs, they felt that "the balance between remaking a beloved game while bringing innovation to it was the best starting point" for everyone. New coat of paint (Image credit: Ubisoft) One of the starkest differences between the original Legends and Retold is the shift from a hand-painted 2D look to a fully 3D art style albeit one that largely maintains the side-on perspective. It's a move that Gounon suggests shows where the franchise is headed overall.

" Rayman started on PlayStation with a 2D game at a time when most games were 3D. Then Rayman 2 and Rayman 3 were 3D games in the rendering, but also in
the gameplay. Then Origins went back to full 2D: 2D rendering and 2D gameplay," he explains. What to read next I'm rediscovering Assassin's Creed Black Flag in Resynced here's what I love, and what I'd change Inside Story Kitchen, the trail-blazing studio that fought the 'videogame adaptation
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controls are dividing fans

"The thing is, when you've got a 2D engine and are in 2D rendering, it's less easy to make a 3D game afterwards. So, as part of thinking about the
franchise for the future, two things that came to mind really early were that we want to go back to the adventure DNA of the franchise, and we don't want
to [stop ourselves from] going towards a 3D adventure."

If you think of Legends Retold as a jumping-off point for the franchise going forward, the whole project begins to make a lot of sense.

Gounon doesn't shy away from saying that "we believe that this IP has a future" and that this remake is only the beginning "if everything goes according to plan" and it proves popular. He even indicates that part of the move to 3D was so the team could build a bank of 3D assets, presumably for future use. (Image credit: Ubisoft) Although it's clear that Legends Retold
is geared towards new players, Gounon says the team has gone to great lengths to maintain the overall feel of the original game so as not to disappoint returning players. This even involves utilizing the original game engine, UbiArt Framework, underneath all the shiny new graphics powered by the latest version of Snowdrop.

"What's a bit particular about this project is that we did not want to mess with the game feeling: all the characters reacting, the physics, etc. We knew that the muscle memory you have with a platformer we can't mess with it.
It's a constraint of Rayman , and so is the level design. There's a quality
of level design that's unmatched, on par with the best games in the world, like Mario ," he begins. "So we knew we couldn't mess with the quality of the level design or the game's flow and the physics.

"We knew we couldn't mess with the quality of the level design" Loc Gounon "What we decided to do is that everything that's happening game mechanics
and flow is powered by UbiArt Framework. UbiArt is also doing the 2D animation and 2D drawing, but as we were going 3D, we integrated UbiArt Framework game logic within the game logic of Snowdrop.

"Snowdrop is handling all the animation, the character art, the environment art, and the audio. All that new visual layer on top of the gameplay logic is Snowdrop.

"Basically, we've got the best of both worlds, meaning a great engine to make levels and gameplay, which is UbiArt Framework, and also maintaining the quality of the original game because it's the same thing running under the hood, within an engine that allows for fully-fledged 3D rendering." A matter of taste (Image credit: Ubisoft) As with any big change, the new art
direction has had its critics. "Nothing can outdo the beautiful hand-drawn style," reads one of the highest-rated comments on the original reveal
trailer , but Gounon is confident that skeptics will be won over once the
game is in their hands.

"Some people will always have a personal attachment to something they loved, especially when it's something super special that got 90+ on Metacritic, and it's highly subjective. That's totally okay, and to be fair, when you love something, you don't want it to change," he begins.

"I think it's natural. Then I think we will prove what 3D is bringing. I
think once you start playing the game, and more people see the game, hear character voices, [watch] the fully animated 3D cutscenes, I think they will get why we are making it."

He adds that he's excited for players to see more of the game in the build-up to release and promises, "It's not a simple remake; it's more than that."

There will be a bit of a wait, however, with the game recently delayed until December 3, 2026, when it will launch for Nintendo Switch 2, PS5, Xbox Series X and Series S, and PC. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.



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