Ubisoft pushed Rayman Legends Retold out of its 2026 window this week, and Polygon’s report suggests the remake now lands sometime in the following fiscal year at the earliest. That is a long wait for the couch-co-op crowd on PC, especially the parents who were counting on a new Rayman for a family holiday session. The original Rayman Legends is still on Steam, still runs on modern rigs, and still holds up. It also came out in 2013, which is a very long time for a genre that has produced some of the best 2D platformers ever made in the years since. We spent the week running through seven Steam alternatives that hit the same nerves: painted 2D worlds, tight platforming, and, where possible, a second controller for a friend on the sofa.
Quick comparison
| App | Best for | Free plan | Starting price | Standout feature |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ori and the Will of the Wisps | Solo players chasing the painterly Rayman look | No | $29.99 | Watercolor art with feather-light movement |
| Hollow Knight | Long-haul solo runs and mood | No | $14.99 | Hand-drawn bug kingdom, 30+ hour campaign |
| Cuphead | Two-player boss rush nights | No | $19.99 | 1930s ink-and-cel animation, local co-op |
| Trine 5: A Clockwork Conspiracy | Four-player couch or online co-op | No | $29.99 | Three-class puzzle platforming for up to 4 |
| Rayman Origins | Fans who just want more Rayman | No | $19.99 | Same UbiArt engine, four-player co-op |
| Guacamelee! 2 | Co-op fans who want a metroidvania | No | $19.99 | Two-player local co-op with combo brawler flow |
| Unravel Two | Two-player sit-down with a partner who does not game | No | $19.99 | Two-yarn puzzle platformer, shared controller works |
Why people are looking past Rayman Legends
Three things happened at once. First, the Retold remake got delayed, and Ubisoft has not committed to a new date on Steam or on the store. Second, Rayman Legends itself is now twelve years old, and while it still looks lovely, its post-2013 content pipeline (Kung Foot, the Origins remixed levels, the Invasion challenges) has been mined dry by anyone who bought it during a Ubisoft sale in the last decade. Third, PC has quietly become the best place to play 2D platformers, and most of the games on this list either did not exist or were not on Steam when Rayman Legends launched.
The other thing to name: local co-op on PC is fiddlier than it should be, and a few of these games handle a second Xbox controller more gracefully than others. We flagged the ones that ran couch co-op out of the box with two USB pads plugged in, no Steam Remote Play, no config file edits.
Ori and the Will of the Wisps
The closest match on the list for the painted-poster look Rayman Legends chased. Moon Studios paints every screen like a scene from a children’s book, and the movement system, once you unlock the full toolkit, is as satisfying as anything Ubisoft Montpellier shipped. It is a solo game, so bring it home for the art and the platforming rather than the couch nights.
Where it falls short. There is no co-op mode, and the mid-game combat can feel like a chore compared to the pure movement sections. Boss encounters lean harder on reaction time than the rest of the game.
Pricing. $29.99 on Steam, often on sale for around $10.
Moving over from Rayman Legends. Rebind the dash to a shoulder button and it feels immediately natural. The Spirit Trials leaderboards scratch the same itch as the Rayman Legends Awesome Tracks.
Download: Steam
Bottom line. If you liked Rayman Legends for the pictures and the flow, start here.
Hollow Knight
Team Cherry’s bug kingdom is longer, slower, and darker than Rayman, but the same core loop is there: reach a new area, learn its rules, unlock a movement upgrade that reframes the map. The hand-drawn art hides an enormous world underneath, and even a modest laptop can run it comfortably.
Where it falls short. It is a solo game with a real difficulty curve and almost no in-world hand-holding. Players who bounced off Rayman Legends’ harder Invasion levels will hit walls here.
Pricing. $14.99 on Steam. It goes on sale regularly for around $7.
Moving over from Rayman Legends. Turn on the map-marker option in accessibility. That single toggle bridges most of the readability gap for players used to Rayman’s linear worlds.
Bottom line. The best value on the list, and the biggest single game on it. Just do not expect a couch session.
Cuphead
Studio MDHR built a 2D shooter-platformer that looks like a lost Fleischer cartoon from 1932. The two-player local co-op is what puts it on this list: hand a friend a controller, pick your boss, and take turns reviving each other. The Delicious Last Course expansion adds a fourth island of bosses and a new playable character.
Where it falls short. Difficulty. Cuphead is not a casual pick-up-and-play the way Rayman Legends is; even easy mode expects clean pattern recognition. Some players give up before they see the second island.
Pricing. $19.99 for the base game, $7.99 for the Delicious Last Course expansion.
Moving over from Rayman Legends. Play the Simple difficulty boss run first, together, before touching Regular. Treat it like Kung Foot for grownups.
Bottom line. The only game here whose art direction is as recognizable at a glance as Rayman’s.
Trine 5: A Clockwork Conspiracy
The purest replacement for a Rayman Legends couch night. Frozenbyte’s fifth Trine keeps the three-class formula (Amadeus the wizard, Pontius the knight, Zoya the thief) and now supports four-player local and online play, one class per player, with shared physics puzzles that reward creative solutions.
Where it falls short. The story is not memorable, and if you have played any earlier Trine, the puzzle vocabulary will feel familiar in the first few chapters. Online co-op needs one host with a stable connection.
Pricing. $29.99 on Steam, usually discounted to around $15 during seasonal sales.
Moving over from Rayman Legends. Play in the Classic mode where each class is locked to one player; it is closer to how Rayman Legends handles its four-player split roles than the free-swap default.
Bottom line. If four controllers on the couch is the goal, this is the pick.
Rayman Origins
The direct predecessor. Same team, same UbiArt engine, same four-player couch co-op. Origins is a little tighter in scope than Legends and lacks the music levels, but the platforming fundamentals are identical and it usually costs less than a coffee.
Where it falls short. No Kung Foot, no Awesome Tracks, no daily challenges. If those were the parts of Rayman Legends you loved, Origins will feel thinner.
Pricing. $19.99 on Steam and Ubisoft Connect, frequently on sale for $4 or less.
Moving over from Rayman Legends. Almost nothing to relearn. The pause menu is slightly different and Barbara is not selectable, but everything else lines up.
Download: Steam or Ubisoft Connect
Bottom line. The obvious pick and the one you probably already own.
Guacamelee! 2
DrinkBox’s luchador metroidvania is a co-op-first 2D platformer with a fighting-game combo system layered on top of the movement. Two players can drop in and out on one PC, and the world is built around alt-dimension swaps that keep the platforming fresh across the campaign.
Where it falls short. The humor is broad and Very Online in places, and the combat can dominate the platforming in the mid-game. Players hoping for a pure platformer will hit stretches of pure brawling.
Pricing. $19.99 on Steam, part of most DrinkBox bundles at a steep discount.
Moving over from Rayman Legends. Turn off screen shake in the accessibility menu if you are running the game in local co-op on a small display. It doubles when two players are on screen and the intro tutorial becomes uncomfortable.
Bottom line. The rare 2D platformer where two-player local is the intended way to play.
Unravel Two
Coldwood’s yarn-puppet sequel is the softest landing on this list. Two Yarnys, tethered by their own thread, solve environmental puzzles across a series of short, painterly chapters. It supports one-controller co-op, so a partner who does not usually game can pick up the second character with a keyboard or a shared pad.
Where it falls short. Short: a first playthrough runs about five hours, and the optional challenge levels do not add much for solo players. Not a lot of replay once the credits roll.
Pricing. $19.99 on the EA App, often bundled into EA Play at no extra cost.
Moving over from Rayman Legends. Play the tethered puzzles as a shared-controller co-op with a partner. It is the closest thing to the friendly, patient side of Rayman’s couch levels.
Bottom line. The one to hand to a partner or a kid who does not play games. It is generous with mistakes and beautiful throughout.
How to choose
Start with who you play with. If you were buying Rayman Legends for solo runs and you cared about the pictures, Ori and the Will of the Wisps is the direct successor and it goes on sale often. If you want the biggest game for the money and you do not mind a slower start, Hollow Knight will last you longer than any two other games on this list combined.
If you were playing Rayman Legends on the couch with a partner or a kid, Unravel Two is the pick when patience matters more than reflexes, and Cuphead is the pick when the second player wants a challenge. Both handle two controllers on one PC without hassle.
If the whole point was four controllers and a Sunday afternoon, Trine 5 is the modern answer and Rayman Origins is the cheap one. Buy Origins first if you already own a copy of Legends and never dug into it. Buy Trine 5 if you want something new and can spend $30.
If you loved the fighting-game feel of Rayman Legends’ invasion levels and the way movement, combat, and platforming folded into each other, Guacamelee! 2 is closest, and Hollow Knight is a slower, deeper take on the same idea.
The one thing we would not do is wait for Rayman Legends Retold. Even if Ubisoft nails the release next fiscal year, you have a stack of great platformers on Steam right now, several of them under $20, and most of them on sale during the next Steam event.
FAQ
Is Rayman Legends still worth buying on PC in 2026?
Yes, especially on sale. It runs cleanly on modern Windows, the UbiArt visuals still hold up, and the Awesome Tracks and Kung Foot modes are unique to it. What has changed is that it is no longer the only good pick in the genre, and the delayed remake means the sequel treatment is still a long way off.
Which Rayman Legends alternative works best for couch co-op?
Trine 5: A Clockwork Conspiracy for four players, Cuphead or Guacamelee! 2 for two. All three handle a second Xbox controller plugged in over USB with no configuration. Unravel Two is the friendliest option for a partner who does not normally play games.
Does Rayman Legends Retold have a new release date?
Ubisoft has not confirmed a new date. Polygon’s coverage of the delay noted the remake is now slotted for a later fiscal year and is expected to skip the original 2026 window. Watch the official Ubisoft channel rather than store listings, which have not been updated.
Are any of these Rayman Legends alternatives free to play?
None of the seven are free. All are one-time purchases in the $15 to $30 range, and most go on sale for half that during Steam seasonal events. Hollow Knight tends to hit the lowest sale price of the group.
Do these games run on Steam Deck?
All seven are verified or playable on Steam Deck as of this writing. Ori and the Will of the Wisps and Hollow Knight are the smoothest handheld picks; Trine 5 in four-player mode is more comfortable docked to a TV.
What is the best alternative for a first-time platformer player?
Unravel Two, then Rayman Origins. Both scaffold the mechanics gently, both are cheap, and both allow one-controller or shared-play options that lower the barrier for a new player.
