Rayman Legends Retold is launching for PlayStation, Xbox, PC, and Switch 2 on December 3. A reimagining of the 2013 classic, the upcoming platformer features a narrative with a new enemy stirring up trouble; new cinematics and upgraded 3D visuals; returning levels, a mysterious new realm, and four new musical stages; and pure platforming joy as you leap, glide, and punch your way through worlds on a legendary journey.
To ensure that both the original fans and new fans could all experience this new adventure, the Rayman Legends Retold development team kept accessibility at the forefront of the game's design. Senior UX Designer Andrea Scambia spoke with us about creating accessibility features to meet modern standards, designing accessibility for a 3D platformer, and how the team tackled levels that change perspective and time gameplay to a specific beat.
How has accessibility evolved since the original Rayman Legends released?
Andrea Scambia: Rayman Legends remains an outstanding game, it’s also true that standards and player expectations have evolved considerably since its original release. This field became a greater focus within the industry, our own knowledge, processes, and expertise evolved as well. This gave us an opportunity with Rayman Legends Retold not only to preserve a beloved experience, but also to modernize it through a stronger and more comprehensive offer, ensuring that as many players as possible could enjoy the game comfortably without compromising its core identity.
One of the most notable accessibility features in the original Rayman Legends was control remapping. While it successfully delivered the functionality it was designed for, we identified opportunities to modernize and improve the overall user experience. As part of our redesign of the settings menu for Retold, we reimagined the control remapping interface by introducing predefined control presets and providing clearer visualizations of input mappings for both controllers and keyboards. These improvements make it easier for players to understand, customize, and confidently use their preferred control setup.
We also expanded the game's audio and readability options to accommodate a wider range of player needs and preferences. Players can independently adjust volume levels for master audio, music, ambient sounds, sound effects, voice, and UI sounds, allowing for a more personalized listening experience. To improve text readability, we introduced an alternative sans-serif font that players can enable throughout the game.
Subtitle customization was another important area of focus. Players can choose between three subtitle sizes (Small, Medium, and Large), adjust subtitle background opacity with options ranging from no background to 50% or 100% opacity, and enable speaker names to provide additional context and clarity during dialogue.
More broadly, the industry's understanding of accessibility has grown significantly over the years. As our expertise as a company evolved alongside this increased focus, we felt it was important to invest substantial effort into making Rayman Legends Retold a strong example of a modern, state-of-the-art approach to accessibility, while remaining faithful to the spirit of the original game.
Rayman Legends Retold is in 3D, while the original was in 2D. What opportunities and challenges does that extra dimension add in when considering accessibility?
AS: Moving from a 2D presentation to a fully 3D world introduced a new set of challenges. One of our artistic goals for Rayman Legends Retold was to create richer, more immersive environments with a stronger sense of depth and realism. While this enhanced the visual experience, it also increased the complexity of gameplay readability, as interactive elements can sometimes be harder to distinguish from the surrounding environment in visually detailed scenes.
While many players enjoy the game's visual presentation as designed, we wanted to provide additional options for those who benefit from greater visual clarity. To address this, we introduced Highlights and High Contrast Mode, two features designed to make gameplay-critical elements easier to identify.
These features help players more easily recognize interactive objects, collectibles, enemies, the main path, and player characters. Highlights apply distinct colored outlines to objects, making their function immediately recognizable at a glance. High Contrast Mode goes a step further by applying color coding to entire gameplay elements while increasing the visual separation between interactive content and the background, resulting in a clearer and more readable presentation.
Features like these are still relatively uncommon in platforming games, which made them particularly exciting to explore during development. We encourage players to experiment with both options, as they can not only improve accessibility but also offer a different perspective on the game's spaces and challenges. As a light-hearted observation, we would not be surprised if some players ended up enabling them simply to optimize their performance and chase higher scores in challenge modes such as the Cave of Trials.
The dragon rides in particular shift perspective and dimension quite a bit mid-flight. How do you approach accessibility for levels that are technologically more complex?
AS: The dragon ride levels presented a unique challenge due to their perspective and gameplay. Unlike the rest of the game, these sequences place the camera behind the player character, allowing movement up, down, left, and right while players navigate through the environment and destroy targets along the way.
An interesting aspect of these levels is that they do not feature traditional aiming mechanics. The dragon always shoots straight ahead, and players must position themselves correctly to line up with targets. In a fully 3D environment, however, perspective and depth can make this more difficult than it might initially appear. Judging whether the dragon is properly aligned with a distant target is not always straightforward, particularly when objects are positioned at different depths within the scene.
To help address this challenge, we implemented subtle aim assistance that gently snaps projectiles toward nearby targets. The feature is designed to remain largely invisible during gameplay, helping players hit their intended target more consistently while preserving the natural feel and pacing of these sequences.
For players who require additional support, we also introduced Autoshoot. As the name suggests, this feature automatically fires at valid enemies and objectives whenever they are within range. This allows players to focus entirely on navigation and movement while reducing the demands associated with target acquisition and depth perception.
The dragon ride levels are a good example of how accessibility challenges can emerge from the way a game presents information rather than from its core mechanics. By introducing these features, we were able to make these sequences more approachable for a wider range of players while preserving the excitement and spectacle that make them memorable.
Similarly, what's the approach to accessibility for the musical levels, where gameplay is tied to a musical beat?
AS: The musical levels required a different type of approach. Because these sequences are built around a fixed rhythm and feature constant forward progression, players have less time to recover from mistakes or reorient themselves compared to a traditional level.
In cooperative multiplayer, this challenge can become even more pronounced. When several players are moving together through fast-paced sections, characters may overlap or cluster closely together, making it difficult to keep track of which character you are controlling. This can be especially noticeable during the more intense moments of a musical level, where maintaining awareness of your position is critical.
One of the features that helps address this is Highlights. By applying distinct colored outlines to player characters, Highlights make it much easier to identify and follow your own character, even when multiple players occupy the same area of the screen.
We also considered situations in which a player becomes separated from the group. When a player is defeated, they temporarily float in the air in an energy sphere. In this state, the character remains visible even when obscured by level geometry using a silhouette effect, helping players maintain awareness of their location and making it easier for teammates to assist them.
Additionally, players who become disoriented can quickly regroup with the team. Pressing any button will bring the floating player back toward the leading player, while holding the button allows them to remain attached to the leader until they are ready to rejoin the action. Together, these features help reduce confusion and ensure that players can stay focused on the rhythm, action, and cooperative coordination at the heart of these levels.
What accessibility features are you most proud of?
AS: We are particularly proud of the Fairy Blessing, along with Highlights and High Contrast Mode, which we discussed earlier. Together, these features allowed us to address very different challenges, ranging from gameplay difficulty to visual readability and environmental awareness.
Fairy Blessing was designed for players who encounter a section that becomes a barrier to their progression. Players can enable the feature in the settings menu and then activate it whenever needed during gameplay through a dedicated input. Once active, it allows them to fly and become invulnerable while still being able to defeat enemies, collect rewards, and interact with objects. There are no usage limits, as the feature is intended to give players complete control over how they experience the game and when they would like additional assistance. To preserve a fair experience in competitive modes, however, Fairy Blessing is disabled in activities such as Cave of Trials and Kung Foot Evo, where scores and player performance are a central part of the challenge.
Beyond dedicated accessibility features, one of our goals throughout development was to reduce friction wherever possible. Accessibility is not only about adding new options; sometimes it is also about removing unnecessary barriers and making common interactions more intuitive.
This philosophy influenced a number of design decisions across the game. For example, players no longer need to jump in order to enter portals, the costume shop was relocated so that groups can browse and choose outfits together more naturally, and we introduced Quick Navigation for players who prefer to move directly to their next destination rather than manually traversing the hub world each time.
Individually, these changes may seem small, but together they contribute to a smoother and more welcoming experience. They reflect a core principle that guided our work throughout the project: whenever possible, we wanted players to spend less time dealing with friction and more time enjoying the game.
Rayman Legends Retold Accessibility Features
GAMEPLAY
Health Modifiers
- Players can customize their health settings to tailor the gameplay experience.
Default Health
- Matches the original Rayman Legends experience.
- Taking damage causes the player to respawn at the previous checkpoint.
Red Heart
- Grants protection from one instance of damage from enemies or environmental hazards.
- Restored when restarting from a checkpoint.
- Can also be earned by saving a King or Queen Teensy or by obtaining Phials.
Golden Heart
- Grants protection from two instances of damage.
- After taking one hit, the Golden Heart becomes a Red Heart.
- Restored when freeing a King or Queen Teensy if activated.
- Restored when restarting from a checkpoint.
Exceptions Hearts do not protect players from:
- Falling into a pit.
- Falling into toxic liquid.
- Being crushed by a level object.
- Being hit by the Boss Toad Power Aura.
Fairy Blessing
- An optional blessing from Betilla that can be enabled in the settings. Players can invoke or remove Fairy Blessing using the default input (L2 / LT / ZL).
When activated, Fairy Blessing:
- Prevents players from receiving damage.
- Allows flying, including through breakable obstacles.
- Revives the player and floating allies.
In the Land of the Livid Dead:
- Fairy Blessing replaces the use of Fairy Radiance when colliding with corrupted elements.
Unavailable in:
- The Hubs
- Kung Foot Evo
- All Cave of Trials challenges
Autoshoot
- Designed to make Dragon Ride levels more accessible.
- Automatically launches fireballs when the dragon is within range of a target.
- Reduces the amount of rapid manual input required during these sections.
Automatic Actions
Designed to reduce rapid or repetitive button presses during gameplay.
Fairy Blaze
- Automatically throws Fairy Blaze at regular intervals after a single button press.
- Press the input again to stop automatic throwing.
Fairy Radiance
- Automatically emits circles of Light at regular intervals after a single button press.
- Press the input again to stop the automatic action.
Tickling
- Removes the need for repeated button presses during Frankie encounters.
- A single press automatically continues the tickling interaction until the button is pressed again.
No Quick Time Events
- The game contains no quick time events (QTEs).
CONTROLS
Hold / Toggle Options
Players can choose between hold and toggle inputs for specific actions.
Supported actions include:
- Glide
- Run
- Murphy: Eat Cake
Control Remapping
- Gameplay controls can be remapped for both gamepad and keyboard controls on all platforms.
Multiple Input Devices
- Supports both keyboard and mouse and gamepad controls on PC.
X and Y Axis Inversion
- X and Y axis inversion available for both sticks and mouse during ride gameplay.
Vibration Controls
- Vibration intensity can be turned off.
AUDIO
Independent Volume Controls
Separate volume sliders are available for:
- Master
- Music
- Ambient
- Sound Effects
- Voice
- UI Sounds
No Audio Reliance
- No important information is communicated through sound alone.
VISUALS
Arachnophobia Mode
- Removes spiders from the game.
- Designed for players who prefer not to see spider imagery.
- Spiders only appear in the background and can be removed completely.
High Contrast Mode
- Improves visibility of gameplay elements.
- Designed to help players more easily perceive important gameplay information.
Highlights
Allows players to clearly identify gameplay elements and can help reduce cognitive load.
Highlight categories include:
- Interactive Ingredients
- Rewards
- Enemies & Harmful Objects
- Players
Highlights can be used independently or alongside High Contrast Mode.
Alternative Readability Font
- Alternative sans-serif font available for improved readability.
Camera Shake Toggle
- Camera shake effects can be disabled.
MENUS & HUD
HUD Background
Improves legibility and visibility of on-screen information.
- Adds a dark background behind HUD elements.
Available at:
- 50% opacity
- 100% opacity
Subtitle Customization
Subtitles can be customized with:
Three font sizes:
- Small
- Medium
- Large
Subtitle background options:
- No background
- 50% opacity
- 100% opacity
- Optional speaker names for additional clarity.
Readable Text Presentation
- Text is designed for both living room and handheld play.
- Uses a clear sans-serif font on plain contrasting backgrounds.
ADDITIONAL ACCESSIBILITY SUPPORT
- Accessibility options can be activated or deactivated individually.
- Accessibility settings can be customized independently, including during co-op play.
- Designed to support a wide range of player needs and preferences.
Pre-order Rayman Legends Retold for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch 2, and PC via the Ubisoft Store, Steam, and the Epic Games Store.