Legends uses mostly the same engine from Origins, which is great because that game was tight as s***. It's super fast paced when you need it to be, and Rayman's moveset feels very full and natural. Pleasingly, Legends replaces some of his less useful moves with new ones that actually serve some purpose. In the aesthetics department, the game is really f***' good looking. Better than Origins. And the music is f*** phenomenal - fun stuff that doesn't take itself too seriously, and works perfectly with the environment. (Sample) Edit: and now that I've posted that, I've discovered that it's actually a reference I didn't catch at first. Neat!

And speaking of the music -- one of the best parts of the game is the six music levels (which is not NEARLY enough). In these, as long as Rayman runs forward at a steady pace, the whole level around him (obstacles, pickups, background details, etc) will sync to the music being played. A few of the songs are licensed, making them even more special. I cannot praise these levels enough, they're f*** awesome. (Sample) There are a few points in some of them where it seems like the music is the tiniest bit off sync, but it never bothered me much. Still, if that were fixed (and likely even if it weren't) I wouldn't hesitate to buy a whole game with just these levels. Levels synced to music are probably my #1 gaming fetish.

I will say that the music levels highlight how average the level design is in the rest of the game. There were few bad areas, but there weren't a whole lot of extremely memorable ones either. The best parts of the game are where Rayman's speed is fixed (like in the music levels), and the developers can design the level's hazards around that ("cinematic" is not the word I'm looking for, but they are very interesting to look at, to say the least). Most of the other levels are simply obstacle courses. Nothing really wrong with them, but not much stands out. This was especially noticeable when I would replay Origins stages and notice that there were some I didn't even remember, despite only finishing Origins a few months ago.

Which brings me to my next praise: about 2/3 of the levels from Origins are included in Legends as bonus levels (that's 40 extra levels). They are all redone to match the new mechanics and features in Legends, and frankly it makes them a lot better to play. The fact that they're included at all is surprisingly generous from a publisher in 2013. They highlight some of the subtle tweaks to the game's system, such as enemies no longer taking two hits to give you all their money ((lums)), or few Legends levels forcing you to go after quickly-disappearing, slowly-rising, infuriating Lums. They make Legends a much faster, more enjoyable game to play (although some Origins levels still suffer from the latter problem)

It is at times incredibly obvious that Legends was designed as a Wii U exclusive. There are lottery tickets that a player would scratch on the Wii U (done with the sticks on PS3), and a whole other character, Murphy, could be controlled using the touch screen. Murphy only appears in some levels specifically designed for him. On the Wii U, the player controlling Murphy moves hazards out of the way for the player controlling Rayman -- You cannot control both Rayman and Murphy at the same time. On PS3, Murphy's actions are all controlled with either the circle button or L1/R1 by the same player who controls Rayman. It's actually much more fun this way, and ironically, I'd say these levels make the PS3 version the best version. (Although I hear the Wii U has more levels? That might make a difference, I suppose)

My biggest complaint with the game is the speedrunning, though (And no, I don't mean the fan community). In Origins, you could get several BIG COLLECTIBLE THINGS in each level - one for beating the level, a few found within the level, one for collecting a certain amount of lums, etc. Most importantly, there was one for finishing the level within a certain time -- and you could get a trophy for beating a slightly faster time. These were, surprisingly, fun as f***. Usually I hate forced speedrun sections like that, but they were completely optional and they were a blast to play. They forced you to learn the level in new ways, and learn all the minor nuances of Rayman's moveset. These don't exist in Legends. They were replaced with Invasion levels - which are basically the environment assets of the original level mixed with enemies from another level. They are not the same levels as the originals, but are instead redesigned entirely with speedrunning in mind. They are among the highly scripted "cinematic" levels I mentioned above. They can be very satisfying and challenging, since they expect the player to be at a certain place at all times for the cycles to work, but they aren't the same as relearning a level that wasn't designed for the way you're using it. It's highly disappointing, although I feel like I may be the only one who feels this way.

Lastly: It's a minor complaint, because this content is completely optional, but the last three "characters" (more like costumes -- they're recolored versions of one of the only four existing characters, but that isn't a big deal) take 500,000, 750,000, and 1,000,000 lums to unlock (they aren't "bought", they're unlocked when you earn that many lums). Let me put that in context: I finished every level in the game, 100%, and finished with about 460,000 lums. Oh, and I didn't earn all of those in levels, either -- 240,000 of them were gifted to me by the game for various accomplishments. That's about 220,000 lums in one playthrough -- you'd need to replay the game entirely two more times (and then some) just to get that last character. I have no idea what it is, but I'm certain it isn't worth it.