PushSquare's Most Anticipated Overlooked PlayStation Games Of Holiday 2011: #4 - Rayman Origins.

We've only just finished championing Sony and Insomniac's four-player opus Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One, and now we're moving directly onto Rayman Origins.

Ubisoft's delightfully French platformer series was iconic on the original PlayStation, but has slowly faded away into obscurity in recent years. The Rabbids that were born out of Rayman's own universe have gone on to become bigger stars than the limbless hero himself, and so Rayman Origins promises a long overdue return to the spotlight for the Michel Ancel designed character.

Occupying a beautiful hand-painted two-dimensional art aesthetic, Rayman Origins takes some inspiration from Nintendo's New Super Mario Bros Wii, teaming players into groups of four and requiring one player to stay alive in order to progress. Deceased team-mates will require "popping" by an active player, as they float above the stage in a care-free bubble.

The game promises over 60 levels set within twelve unique environments, with some levels including multiple hidden layers to enhance the replay value.

As the name suggests, Rayman Origins is an "origins" story, featuring many of the characters from the original Ryaman title, including Betilla The Fairy and antagonist Mr. Dark. Despite being originally conceived as a PlayStation Network download, Rayman Origins has clearly bloated in scope since its original announcement. The artwork alone is enough to excite us, but it's the promise of some quality two-dimensional co-operative platforming on PlayStation 3 that's really forced us to include Rayman Origins on our most anticipated list.