Hit 30th Anniversary Edition with "mixed" reviews on Steam

Rayman: 30th Anniversary Edition is getting some surprisingly negative reviews on Steam, mostly centered on the collection's new soundtrack, which doesn't feel “as special”.

There were many exciting announcements during this week's State of Play, from the remake of the God of War trilogy to the reveal of a new Dead or Alive game in development. For my money, though, the biggest moment was the long-awaited return of Rayman, who is getting a special re-release of his first adventure to celebrate the series' 30th anniversary.

From the trailer, it looked like Rayman: 30th Anniversary Edition was giving fans exactly what they wanted from the re-release of the original game, with five unique versions, a museum chronicling the creation of the character, and even the SNES prototype being playable for everyone for the first time. However, this positive is undermined by one big thing – the soundtrack.

Rayman fans are not happy with the new Anniversary Edition release

It's mainly about the soundtrack, but there are other issues as well

Rayman: 30th Anniversary Edition launched yesterday, and while it looked like it would be an instant hit with fans, it wasn't quite the case. At the time of writing, the Anniversary Edition has a “Mixed” rating on Steam after 143 reviews, with more than half of them negative.

A big reason for all the fuss is that the Anniversary Edition completely replaced the original soundtrack by Rémi Gazel (who sadly passed away in 2019) with one created by Origins and Legends composer Christophe Héral. While Héral is legendary in his own right, fans aren't happy that there's no way to switch between them, and think the new music doesn't quite fit the Rayman vibe.

The replaced soundtrack seems to be all most fans are talking about right now, and most agree that it takes away a large part of the gameplay from such an iconic game. That's not the only problem, though, as reviews are also frustrated by the usual Ubisoft Connect compulsions, while other players mention having some problems deleting save files.

It's a real shame to see the Anniversary Edition getting such mixed reviews so far because it seems to be doing so much right. Here's hoping that the original soundtrack can be added as an option to the game, or at least that Héral's version of the OST will eventually be accepted as such.