Lagging behind prior outings on PC, consoles and PS Vita, Rayman Origins is finally ready to make the 3D leap. The Nintendo 3DS version of Ubisoft’s gem of a 2D platformer is scheduled to ship on June 5th for $29.99, with StreetPass support for sharing game progress and avatars with other players. Visit the Nintendo eShop today to try out a free playable demo.

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Three HUGE gaming blockbusters dominate the spotlight in the latest edition of our weekly screenshot round-up. Prepare to be shocked and awed by gorgeous new shots from Crysis 3, Halo 4 and The Last of Us.

Anything else to care about? You bet! Loads of games were immortalized in screenshot form this week. Other featured galleries include: Gravity Rush, Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy, Batman: Arkham City’s Harley Quinn’s Revenge DLC, Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown, Rayman Origins 3DS, One Piece: Pirate Warriors, Alan Wake’s American Nightmare for PC, Pokédex 3D Pro, Pokémon Black Version/White Version 2, Smart As, Sound Shapes, Madagascar 3: The Video Game, Mercenary Ops, Lollipop Chainsaw, Waveform’s Eris DLC, Worms Revolution, Fray, Dungeon Gate, NASCAR The Game: Inside Line, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD and Final Fantasy XIII-2’s final DLC set.

Crysis 3 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360):
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Halo 4 (Xbox 360):
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The Last of Us (PS3):
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Gravity Rush (PS Vita):
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Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time (PS3, PS Vita):
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Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy (Nintendo 3DS):
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Batman: Arkham City – Harley Quinn’s Revenge DLC (PS3, Xbox 360):
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Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown (PSN, XBLA):
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Rayman Origins 3DS (Nintendo 3DS):
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One Piece: Pirate Warriors (PSN):
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Alan Wake’s American Nightmare (PC):
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Pokédex 3D Pro (Nintendo 3DS eShop):
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Pokémon Black Version/White Version 2 (Nintendo DS):
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Smart As (PS Vita):
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Sound Shapes (PS Vita):
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Madagascar 3: The Video Game (PS3, Wii, Xbox 360):
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Mercenary Ops (PC):
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Lollipop Chainsaw – Juliet Starling Bonus Costumes (PS3, Xbox 360):
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Waveform – Eris DLC (PC):
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Worms Revolution (PC, PSN, XBLA):
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Fray (PC, Mac):
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Dungeon Gate (PC):
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NASCAR The Game: Inside Line (PS3, Wii, Xbox 360):
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Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD (PSN, XBLA):
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Final Fantasy XIII-2 – Final DLC (PS3, Xbox 360):
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Check Out These Links:

• First Look at Crysis 3 Gameplay
• NYC Becomes a Real Urban Jungle in Crysis 3
• Halo 4 Launching Worldwide November 6
• Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD DLC Levels to Come From Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3
• New Last of Us Trailer is Like the Car Scene From Children of Men
• Get Ready for Square Enix’s Nintendo 3DS Summer of Fun
• Square Enix’s 3DS Final Fantasy Rhythm Game Comes West This Summer
• Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time Goes Portable on PS Vita
• Payback’s a Bitch… A Bitch Named Harley Quinn
• New Beta Sign-Ups: Far Cry 3, DUST 514, Mercenary Ops and Fray
• One Piece: Pirate Warriors Goes All Dynasty Warriors on Your Manga-Lovin’ Ass
• Alan Wake’s Pulp Action Spin-off Shines Light on PC This Month

If you’re picking up a PlayStation Vita, you’re probably doing it for some combination of two major reasons: You either want to play new games that use the system’s cool front and back touchscreen features in unusual and interesting ways, or you’re craving a cutting-edge platform that can rock a portable version of your favorite PlayStation 3 games. Rayman Origins is aimed straight at the cartoon hearts of the second camp. Ubisoft has created a picture-perfect port of one of 2011’s strongest and most artistic platformers, and in the process, scored one of the Vita’s absolute must-have launch games.

If you missed Rayman’s major-console romp last November—you were busily hacking dragons in Skyrim, weren’t you?—feel free to smack yourself upside the head with the nearest available controller. Origins is true to its name, harking back to those Nintendo-esque days when platformers were all about the bright colors and sunshine. (Not that there’s anything wrong with Limbo and Outland’s bleak graphical outlook, but still). Our armless hero and his charming compatriots leap, swing and slide through universes that look like detailed, hand-drawn cartoons come to life, trying to collect luma and find secret areas. And simply survive.

You’d think some of that lustrous big-console detail would be lost in translation—and you’d be totally wrong. On the Vita screen, the graphics are luminous and vibrant, and yet large enough that all the little details, from grassy platforms that sprout when the correct objects are struck, to the goofy and changing expressions of Rayman and his pals when they slap enemies are crystal clear. The controls are an absolute dream, featuring none of the floaty physics or cheap deaths that sometimes sidetrack games like this. Rayman Origins is far from the easiest platformer you’ll play, but you won’t be able to blame the Vita’s dual sticks when your jump plummets you into the maw of an underwater piranha plant. Ouch.

The touch controls here are minimal. You can tap the screen to advance through the game menus, and you can also use your fingers to pinch and shrink or expand the screen, the same way you do when you’re trying to line up your slingshot in Angry Birds on iOS devices. One of Rayman Origins’ strengths is that it’s not cheap about the way it disguises pitfalls and secret areas, so while the broader view doesn’t feel strategically necessary, it’s nice to be able to zoom and pan as needed.

Side-scrolling shooter and synchronized sections break up the jump-and slap action neatly. A multiplayer mode didn’t make this particular platform jump, unless your super-loose definition of “multiplayer” happens to include being able to share ghost data with friends wirelessly. It’s a bummer, yes, but it’s hard to stay chapped when the core experience is so utterly entertaining.

It took the PlayStation Portable nearly four years to finally nail the feel of major-console quality games (think God of War: Ghost of Sparta). The PlayStation Vita has it down on launch day. For any of the system’s other shortcomings, I think we can agree to call that significant progress.

Pros:
+ Picture-perfect port of one of 2011’s most awesome and essential platformers
+ Gorgeous hand-drawn graphics + tight controls = gaming bliss
+ Tons of levels and unlockable/collectibles

Cons:
– Touch-screen controls don’t add much to the experience
– Lack of multiplayer mildly disappointing

Game Info:
Platform: PlayStation Vita (previously released on PS3, Wii and Xbox 360)
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: UBlart Montpellier
Release Date: 2/14/2012
Genre: Platformer
ESRB Rating: E10+
Players: 1
Source: Review code provided by publisher

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Game Director Sebastien Morin explains more about Rayman’s moves in the following Q&A, courtesy of Ubisoft.

How many different worlds and environments will we be able to get around?

There are five universes and 10 different worlds to discover. Additionally, we have the Land of the Livid Dead, which is a bit hard to reach but is a whole new universe as well.

At the beginning, each world is introduced one after the other. In each, you will gain a new ability and master how to use them.

Then after you complete the first set of worlds, you’ve grown enough to be dropped in the wild. Just like that a whole new set of worlds are revealed and you have a lot of places to discover at your disposal.

Will all these actions be available from the start, or will some of them be powers you unlock along the way?

At any moment, we give you enough abilities to explore exhaustively each world. So if you feel like playing a level again and again to discover every nook and cranny, it’s up to you.

However, you won’t have all your abilities right away. At the beginning of the game, Rayman and his gang are still incomplete heroes. They’ll need to find and help the fairies to get all their powers back.

Will running be an unlockable power too?

As a Game Designer, an important question is “how do you make gameplay better?”. In Rayman, it could be answered by “chain a bunch of acrobatic moves together faster and faster”.

So it was natural to give this ability right away, for all the players that dare to run in a minefield.

Will there be different “flight modes” as in previous Rayman games? (like the power to fly up?)

The best way to fly in the game would probably be riding on a mosquito. However, you’ll also learn quickly to glide. The glide ability allows you to fly in a number of different ways. At first it’s a very helpful tactic to extend a jump and land out of harm’s way. But we also put a lot of wind in the game, which can extend a glide to more of a flying action. But that’s not always a good thing. Winds are there to help or hinder you, push you to safety or towards a spikey death. Also, some enemies use the wind as traps and it should be noted that you’re not the only one who can fly!

So many different moves must require a lot of different animations, how many are there in Origins compared to the first opus?

Way more! Rayman and his gang have a lot of new abilities, so there’s a lot more animation. Besides having all the animations for the abilities, you have to create more animations for combinations and transitions between those abilities you have. So each playable character has more than 250 animations! I can’t even begin to count the animations of the evil characters, because they can be defeated in a lot of funny ways.

Ubisoft counts down the top 10 ways to ‘bubblize’ enemies in Rayman Origins. Punch ’em. Slap ’em. Crush ’em. Magic ’em up. The choice is yours — the result is always slapstick cartoon comedy!

Rayman Origins ships for PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 on November 15th. When you’re done watching the trailer, scroll on down for a Q&A with Game Director Sebastien Morin about the game’s combat system and “bubblizing.”

The fight system is very different from the first Rayman game, where possibilities of eliminating an enemy were much more limited. Can you talk about that?

In the first Rayman, the fight system was revolving around a simple attack: the charge attack. It created a simple and interesting tradeoff for the player: The more you waited, the farther you would attack. It worked great, but it was static.

In this game, we’ve decided to make it more fast-paced. We naturally sought out attacks that kept your momentum, so that you could keep chaining acrobatic moves, never stopping. Jump, slap, land, spin, run on the wall and kick some ass! It’s exhilarating.

So for every platforming move we had to invent way to defeat enemies without stopping the flow of the game. That’s where all the richness comes from.

How did you come up with so many moves and combos?

Our goal was to have players with very different skill sets be able to enjoy the flow of a platformer. So we came up with different moves for different skills. Begin with little punch, learn to kick in the air, and when you’re good enough just sprint your way spinning and taking out the bad guys. Additionally, we accidentally (not really) discovered that slapping your friends was even more fun. So the set of attack moves just grew dramatically with all those new and creative ways to annoy your friends.

Can you tell us what is your favorite move and why?

The kick in the air is my favorite, it never feels old. This move is central to the design of the game. It’s the key move in the learning process, one that transforms a regular platform player into an actual ninja.

Do the different playable characters have different attacks?

Yes there are subtle differences between each playable character, because we wanted each to feel unique. Since they have the same set of moves, it’s easy to switch from one to another when you feel like it.

Do the different enemies have particularities in the way they attack and in the way to eliminate them, as in the first Rayman game?

With this vast attack set, we allow the player to be quite creative. As the game progresses, enemies become more and more challenging against specific attacks. Everything is still possible, but at your own risk. Also, keep an eye out for some of the domino-like situations we have set up throughout the game. Players can really maximize the result of their attacks, strategically taking out several enemies in one shot!

There is no health bar in the GUI, how does the health system work in the game?

A health bar didn’t feel right in a game where you might lose all those hard earned “health points” by falling into a pit. So it was natural to limit those, and a great opportunity to get rid of the GUI. Instead we took the bubblizing approach. If you take a hit or fall into a pit you turn into a bubble. You can be revived by one of your co-op partners with a simple punch or jump. We also have placed hearts throughout the game which allow you to take a hit without turning into a bubble. Those will come in handy during some of the really challenging maps.

Sometimes, we can see lums coming out of enemies, either when we hit them or when we jump on their bubble. How does that work exactly?

In a nutshell, Lums are your score. We thought it made sense to reward the player with a lum for a well-executed slap in the face. However, that was not enough, especially in co-op mode. If your friend is running ahead, you are left with fewer opportunities to kick ass. So Michel came up with the idea to bubblize enemies. It was great, because all of a sudden lagging players could finish those bad guys, and earn one of those happy lums too.

Take a trip around the wacky world of Rayman Origins in this glorious new trailer for Michel Ancel’s next masterpiece.

Rayman Origins ships for 3DS, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 on November 15th. A PS Vita version is also in the works for next year. Retro 2D Rayman for everyone!

Rayman Origins looks breathtakingly beautiful on consoles. But what about the portable versions? Yep, those are lookin’ mighty fine as well!

Ubisoft recently confirmed that portable versions of the 2D Rayman refresh are cooking away for Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita. These are the first screenshots to be shown running on the two rival handheld gaming machines.

The backdrops don’t appear to be quite as detailed as the HD console platforms — the 3DS version slightly less vibrant than even the Vita version. But other than that the lush and vivacious art has been preserved. Ubisoft’s official fact sheet from Gamescom also points out that the 3DS and PS Vita versions will have “all of the same environments” plus new features “optimized for these handheld consoles,” likely hinting at usage of the touch screens, gyroscopes and/or cameras.

One tease of one of these special features can be seen in the PS Vita gallery below (last image). It shows two systems next to each other, one showing the game from ‘Normal Camera’ perspective and the other displaying a close-up of the same shot in ‘Multitouch Zoom’ mode. No idea what exactly the purpose is, but it sure makes for a pretty picture.

PS Vita:
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Nintendo 3DS:
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Rayman and his pals annoy the cranky neighbors with an interesting musical medley of itching, snoring, fruit munching and bubble popping.

Never shy about pumping out loads of games to support any new gaming hardware launch, Ubisoft has pledged its allegiance to the PlayStation Vita–launching before the end of 2011 in Japan and early next year in North America and Europe–by announcing the development of six titles.

Headlining the list are new iterations in the popular Assassin’s Creed and Lumines franchises alongside a portable version of Rayman Origins. Vita versions of Asphalt street racing, Dungeon Hunter Alliance and Michael Jackson The Experience are also in the works.

“With its processing power, dual tactile screens and cameras, PS Vita allows creators like Ubisoft new and unique opportunities to develop innovative games,”said Yves Guillemot, chief executive officer of Ubisoft. “We’ve got a strong and varied line-up that will offer fun and immersion to all audiences of the PS Vita.”

“We’re delighted with the support and innovative content Ubisoft are bringing to PS Vita,” said Zeno Colaço, Vice President, Publisher & Developer Relations, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. “Great games are at the platform’s heart and with some of Ubisoft’s biggest and best brands coming to PS Vita, we are very excited to work with them in delivering the deepest gaming experience on the most powerful handheld entertainment system on the planet.”

Specific game details and release schedules are still to come, but if you’re in Germany for Gamescom this week, swing by Sony’s booth for a sneak peek at Dungeon Hunter Alliance and Asphalt running on PS Vita. Below are the first screenshots from the two aforementioned games.

Any game can pile up E3 awards like ‘Best Platformer’ and ‘Most Valuable Game’, but only Rayman Origins has what it takes to win awards for ‘Character with the Biggest Butt’ and ‘Most Delicious Platforms’. But whatever they may be for, Rayman Origins is deserving of every award it receives. Watch for it on store shelves this holiday season for PS3, Wii and Xbox 360.