When comparing Magicka vs Rayman Legends, the Slant community recommends Rayman Legends for most people. In the question“What are the best local co-op PC games?” Rayman Legends is ranked 11th while Magicka is ranked 12th. The most important reason people chose Rayman Legends is:
The visual mechanics in the boss stages are pretty impressive as they use 3d rendering but still hold to the 2D graphical look of the game. This allows for bosses that weave in and out of stages as well as attacks that can come from the foreground or background depending on where the boss is located.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Chaotic gameplay that results in amusing friendly fire
Since the main gameplay mechanic of casting spells is skill based on how quickly you execute a certain key combination, there's a high chance of misclicking or mistargeting and accidentally attacking your ally. There’s nothing quite like thunderbolting or summoning death on your friends.
Pro The spell system is pretty unique
Magicka has a unique spell-casting system based on adding elements such as fire, water, and stone to an action queue.
There are eight basic elements (each assigned to a key), of which up to five can be queued at a time. Some elements can be combined in the queuing process (such as fire and water to create steam). The effect of the spell changes to match the elements you add to the queue. Additionally, there are four casting methods: beam (right-click), area (shift+right-click), self-cast (middle-click), and imbue weapon (shift+click).
Pro Funny story and music
Story twists and music create an fun and easy gameplay atmosphere.
Pro Two different gameplay modes
Other than the standard campaign mode there's also a survival mode that's your standard affair with increasingly difficult waves of enemies. There's also an online leader board for survival mode.
Pro Casual fun with friends
Not too complex gameplay allows hilarious time with friends even if they don't know the game.
Pro Visually impressive boss stages
The visual mechanics in the boss stages are pretty impressive as they use 3d rendering but still hold to the 2D graphical look of the game. This allows for bosses that weave in and out of stages as well as attacks that can come from the foreground or background depending on where the boss is located.
Pro Daily and weekly online challenges
There are daily and weekly online challenges that users can compete in, against their friends or just the high scores listed.
Pro Fun cute characters
The cartoony design of the characters is animated smoothly and looks great on screen. For each their design is cute an amusing while also showing differentiating characteristics.
Pro Up to four player local Co-Op so you can help children through hard parts
Up to four local players can play sharing a single screen at the same time in Rayman Legends which is great for when kids get stuck on hard parts as another sibling or parent can jump in and help them out.
Pro All powers unlocked from beginning
Unlike Rayman Origins, Legends has all of Rayman's powers unlocked from the beginning. Players are able to jump float, wall run and attack starting at the first level.
Pro One of the best platformers released in years
From the beautiful design of the 2D cartoon graphics to the level design, soundtrack and multiplayer, Rayman Legends is on par with the best of platformers.
Cons
Con A bit of a learning curve
With the number of spells you have at your command comes the challenge of discovering and remembering them all. But once you know them, you'll be able to counter anything that's thrown at you.
Con Memorizing spells is extremely difficult
The vast combination of elements make it all but impossible to blindly figure out what spell combos the game has and even the wiki page has no usefulness in finding spells for your play style.
Con Optimization could be better
At certain times during competitive play, the game can lag or slow down (not rare for an online game), which may mess up the timing of skill shots in the game. Being that timing is highly important to the gameplay, having a poor netcode that fluctuates during play can be upsetting, especially if it results in a loss.
Con Jump is floaty
The jump action feels a bit floaty which may take a bit to get use to. Normally platformers will offer tighter controls, which people tend to get used to making games that stray from that more difficult or just not something that appeals.
Con No online multiplayer
In this day and age it is disappointing to see a multiplayer game released that does not support online. For a company like Ubisoft this kind of cost should not be an issue which makes it puzzling as to why such a standard feature is missing.