Rayman Legends, an extremely solid platformer from 2013, is getting a fully-fledged remake with 3D graphics—as announced during tonight’s Playstation State of Play—dubbed Rayman Legends Retold. And, more to the point, a whole new soundtrack composed by both Rayman OG Christophe Héral, but also industry veteran Grant Kirkhope.
You might know him from his work on Banjo Kazooie and Donkey Kong 64, but he’s continued working until the present day on games like A Hat in Time, Yooka-Laylee, and more. I had the pleasure of speaking to production director Alessandro Arndt Mucchi and animation director Marco Renso about the game itself—but also what it was like working with such seasoned talent.
“I think [Kirkhope] is very in line with the humorous tone that we have in Rayman,” says Mucchi, “He really gets that. If you look at the past history of his previous compositions and games he worked on, I think he has that feeling.
“He also managed to work very, very well with Christophe Héral, the original composer of the Rayman soundtrack … We have a lot of new compositions, and having these new compositions made by those two super talented musicians, it’s brilliant.”
Mucchi, who has worked with Kirkhope before on the Rabbids games, seemed glad to have him on board again—but for Renso it’s his first time working with the man, and he had some effusive words to say about his quickdraw composition speed:
“Grant is insanely fast as a composer. It’s crazy, like just in so little time he comes up with something amazing, it’s outstanding honestly, it’s very surprising.
“He comes in one day later with something unbelievable, like he’s super fast to react, and it’s crazy. I mean—I guess it’s talent, of course. But I’m constantly amazed by the quality achieved, how fast he can create the music, it’s just outstanding.”
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