Video game review: Rayman Origins

Rayman Origins provides a reminder of the beauty of simple hand-drawn 2-D art

LOVED IT: Bright visuals shine on PS Vita screen, exciting, accessible platforming, brilliant controls, flawless pacing

HATED IT: Cooperative play from consoles is absent

GRAB IT IF: You want the Vita's finest platformer

Every Nintendo portable has had a Super Mario game. The ill-fated GameGear debuted with a Sonic the Hedgehog game. Even the PSP had a platformer, the splendid Daxter.

Every portable console needs a fun-for-all-ages platformer, some simple side-scroller that your mother and your daughter could love. And Sony's PS Vita has exactly that in the sublime Rayman Origins.

Ubisoft actually released Origins for home consoles in late 2011, but it sacrifices almost nothing in this portable revision. In a testament to the Vita's capabilities, Origins looks just as good and plays just as well as it did this past winter. Its lone downfall is the surprising absence of four-player cooperative play.

There's nothing complicated about Origins. You control Rayman, the hand-drawn limbless platforming star that Ubisoft created years ago, in a simple side-scrolling adventure.

Like any good platformer, Origins eases you in with mere sprint and jump mechanics, but things gradually build as you unlock more and more moves. The difficulty mirrors this; early levels are tremendously easy, but the challenge ramps up as you advance.

The pacing of Rayman is perfect, right down to the way each level gradually builds to finish with a tremendous sense of speed and momentum. Secrets abound in each of the huge levels, giving you plenty of reason to explore the beautiful worlds. The level of detail in Origins is stunning, and Ubisoft makes sure that you look around; anything that looks out of place could easily be worth collecting, unlocking a skin here or helping you progress to a later level there.

You'll need to find some time to stop and smile at the hand-drawn world that Ubisoft has crafted. Origins' visuals remind us all of how beautiful simple hand-drawn 2-D art can be, and the brightly colored sprites and vivid worlds come to cartoony life on the Vita's lustrous OLED screen. It's like playing a cartoon come to life.

The controls are also spot-on, making Rayman a joy to control.

Sigh. If only Rayman Origins sported the four-player co-op play of its home console counterparts. I remember demo-ing the game last summer and absolutely falling in love with the simple insanity of Origins' drop-in, drop-out system. The Vita seems tailor-made for such chaotic wildness (what could be more fun than sharing this experience with a friend, or even a random partner over WiFi?), but Ubisoft still leaves that feature out.

Not that you'll notice. There's too much other cartoony goodness to appreciate, anyway.

Reviewed on Sony PS Vita.