Rayman Origins could just be this holiday’s sleeper hit

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLgXYSa1eLw[/youtube]When booting up the Nintendo Wii, it is a given that you won’t be getting HD visuals and huge polygon counts when compared to other gaming machines on the market. These limitations breed innovation, however, and this is shown of magnificently with Rayman Origins for Wii and 3DS.

The hand-drawn art direction that Ubisoft has taken for Rayman Origins looks rather fantastic when running on Nintendo’s little white box. Although the title will also be released on the Xbox 360 and PS3, thanks to what Ubisoft is dubbing the UbiArt Framework, the game should be a sight for sore eyes. The UbiArt Framework allows developers to take advantage of tools that allow their hand-drawn sketches to be easily added to an interactive environment. This gives the artists and designers the freedom to focus on the art rather than the technical side of game development.

I am very much excited for the prospect of playing another New Super Mario Bros.-esque title, especially one that looks as beautiful as Rayman Origins. The game is scheduled for release on November 15 in North America. Now the only remaining problem is deciding whether to pick the title up for 3DS or Wii, and finding time to play it amongst other high profile releases.

Eugene lives in New Mexico and has been a life long gamer since getting his hands on an NES. Always partial to Nintendo, Eugene has made it a point to keep informed on all things Mario.