Rayman Legends - Xbox 360

Rayman Legends is a charmingly weird platformer available from the Library for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Wii U.  You control the limbless Rayman as he dashes through graphically and artistically lush settings.  The gameplay is one part Mario, two parts Sonic as speed and precision are required to navigate each level.

As with most platfomers, you start on the left side of a level and make your way to the right.  Exploration is encouraged and there are numerous areas that extend vertically.  Groups of levels are unified under a theme and usually introduce mechanics to keep things fresh, such as the underwater "20,000 Lums Under the Sea" which has the player swimming and sneaking through levels.  These groupings are capped off by a boss battle and a musical level.  The musical levels are pretty great including a mariachi version of "Eye of the Tiger" (yes, it's as awesome as it sounds).

Rayman Legends only slips up when it demands too much precision and when it throws the brakes on with the annoying Murphy levels.  These levels have you controlling two characters at once, and they just aren't any fun.  Overall, though, Rayman Legends is a blast, and I recommend it to anyone who misses classic platformers.  Also, here's a video of my favorite level.