Grant Kirkhope Rayman Legends Retold - The Big Interview

Legendary Composer Grant Kirkhope Talks Rayman, Soundtracking Assassin's Creed, And British Humor Published Nov 3, 2026, 12:00 PM EST Sam Woods is TheGamer’s Senior Reporter. He’s been in games journalism since 2020 and has undertaken a variety of roles in that time. These have included roles such as SEO Editor, Managing Editor at DualShockers, and Global Head of Gaming, and he's also been seen on the BBC. He was promoted to the Senior Reporter position in 2025 following a series of high-quality reports and exclusives for TheGamer. Since 2020, Sam has written over 3,000 articles and specializes in telling the stories of the people behind the games. He’s interviewed the biggest game directors, some of the industry’s top talents, told the stories of how indie games came to be, and spoken to players about what really makes them tick. He’s also interviewed some of the world’s biggest musical artists to find out how the medium has inspired their work, and TV and Film actors about their roles in video game adaptations. He even hosted a PAX panel in 2021 and made a documentary in 2024 surrounding the creation of a Disney game. Alongside this, Sam focuses on breaking news. He got the scoop on Perfect Dark’s cancellation, provided context on some AI drama, and revealed that Lady Dimitrescu’s actress would love to step back into the character’s giant shoes. These articles have been picked up by the biggest gaming sites, including IGN, GameSpot, and PC Gamer. He also loves to dive into the numbers behind the games. Sam’s journey in games journalism has taken him all over the world. He’s covered Gamescom in Germany, Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles, and Tokyo Game Show in Japan, each on three occasions. He’s been learning Japanese since 2024 with the intention of identifying and translating Japanese-language news and bringing it to English-language audiences first, something he’s done countless times. Sam’s first review was 2020’s Battletoads reboot, and he’s since reviewed games in The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario, and Pokemon franchises. Sign in to your TheGamer account There aren’t many composers in the video game space as esteemed as Grant Kirkhope. He’s won an Ivor Novello Award, and chances are he's composed music for at least one game you’ve played. Starting at Rare in the mid-90s, his credits include series like Donkey Kong, Viva Piñata, Banjo-Kazooie, Minecraft Dungeons, Street Fighter, World of Warcraft, and Mario + Rabbids. His latest adventure comes on Rayman Legends Retold, where he is composing for the game’s new world, The Land of the Livid Dead. Ahead of its release next month, we sat down with Kirkhope to discuss working on Rayman, his unique sound, and his illustrious career. Kirkhope + Rayman, A Match Made In Heaven Kirkhope’s music traditionally has a lot of signature tells. He often combines woodwinds, strings, and xylophones to create whimsical soundtracks. Like Kirkhope, Rayman has sounds that are synonymous with the character. Did this process, merging two unique sounds, present a challenge? “I guess because me and Christopher Héral worked together on the Mario Rabid Sparks of Hope Rayman DLC, we had an understanding. And so I think Ubisoft kind of spotted that our music kind of matched... We both write that kind of quirky music in a different way, and it kind of meets in the middle somewhere,” he tells me. What about the character, is Rayman somebody that Kirkhope enjoys working with, given it's his second spell with the Ubisoft mascot after the Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope: Rayman in the Phantom Show DLC? “It’s fantastic. Back in the day when I was at Rare, we were looking at Ubisoft; we were looking at them going, ‘Rayman's good’, and they were going, ‘Banjo is good.’ We always kept an eye on Rayman because he's a super cool character. He's Ubisoft's mascot, right,” he says. “He's a fantastic character. I feel like as a Brit, we like that kind of fart humor. I feel like it's built into British culture, right? So to get to work on that kind of character is great for British people because it's right up our street.” While many games Kirkhope has composed for have featured spooky levels - think Banjo-Kazooie’s Mad Monster Mansion and Donkey Kong 64’s Creepy Castle - Land of the Livid Dead required the musician to take things up a notch. “When I first started on it, I was expecting it to be that kind of traditional Rayman, quirky, irreverent, farts and all that stuff that goes on in Rayman, which is really cool. Right up my street, that is. But it wasn't. I got given the Land of the Livid Dead, which is really dark,” he says. “When I submitted ideas, they kept saying, ‘no darker, no darker, darker.’ I had to write quite dark music. They described it as ‘Rayman's no longer a kid. He's more of a teenager now. He's kind of a bit more mature.’ So I was like, ‘Oh.’ It was good fun to do. Because I like writing kind of spooky music with a bit of a quirk in it. I guess a bit Danny Elfman-y, probably.” With the soundtrack being so dark, I began to worry it would lose some of Kirkhope’s trademark whimsy. I needn’t. “I feel like it's got darkness in it, but there's still a little bit of humor. Because I think you can't do Rayman with that little bit of a nod and a wink, you know. And I feel like it's always got a bit of that. So it is dark. But it's still got a little bit of something in it just to maybe put a smile on your face, or maybe not scare you too much,” he grins. I could be there. I could do that. Get me my bagpipes. Over the last few years, Kirkhope has built a strong relationship with Ubisoft. His work on the Mario + Rabbids series was fantastic, and clearly it was good enough for them to call him back. I had to ask if Rayman was the only property he was working on, or whether, maybe, just maybe, this was a precursor to the troubled Beyond Good and Evil 2. “No,” he says, chuckling. “It looks absolutely giant. I've got to say, when they showed it at E3, I thought it looked super cool. I'd work on anything for Ubisoft. I really would, because I've always had a good time with them.” I decided to put that to the test. Would Grant Kirkhope work on an Assassin’s Creed game, and if so, when in the world would he choose? “I'd love to have a crack at that, I've got to say. That would be a really cool project to work on, because it's such a cool game. And it's been through so many iterations of different scenarios,” he says. “London, Japan, the big massive Viking one. I’d love to do it. I think it’s unlikely, but I’d love to. “Since I’m Scottish, it would have to be the whole Scotland-against-England thing. Back in the Middle Ages. William Wallace. Robert the Bruce. I could be there. I could do that. Get me my bagpipes.” Touching On His Career My chat with Kirkhope was brief. I only had 15 minutes with him, and despite Ubisoft having representatives on our call, I had to ask about some of his other work in quickfire fashion while I had the chance. Firstly, I needed to know whether he thought the DK Rap, a song he created and has so often called “the worst piece of rap music ever,” would fly today. “I feel like it's definitely a moment in time. I think at the time, the little kids got the joke, but the kind of cool teenagers are like, ‘this is the worst rap track in the history of rap tracks,’ and that’s because it is,” he says. “I feel like it's in the bracket of being so dreadfully bad that people love it and have a laugh with it. I feel like it's worked out in the end. I've had to wait, like, 25 years, but it got there in the end.” What about the Goldeneye pause music? A viral TikTok video brought that back to the spotlight in the last few years. “I claimed my TikTok artist profile. That song has 115 million plays. I have to watch that video every time it comes on my feed because he did such a good job. It’s fantastic, isn’t it?” Kirkhope says, smiling. “I feel like I write these great, complex, orchestral pieces of music, and I'm proud of myself. And everyone's like, ‘yeah, but the DK rap, man, you know?’ Honestly, there are plenty of composers that never get known for anything. So if I'm known for the DK rap and the Golden Eye watch pause music, I'll take it any day. I feel like being known for anything is super humbling and just amazing that anybody gives a shit, right? So, yeah, I'll take it any day.” Finally, with Donkey Kong rumored to be next in line for the Nintendo movie treatment, I had to ask Kirkhope how much he’d want to compose for it. “Oh man, absolutely. Right now, this second, I’d drop everything to do that,” he says. “Even better, I’d do it with Dave [David Wise, composer on Donkey Kong Country, Donkey Kong Land, and Super Smash Bros. Melee, among others],” he tells me. “You can't do DK without Dave Wise's da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da, that tune [Donkey Kong Country’s Jungle Groove], and the DK rap. You've got to have those two.” Released December 3, 2026 ESRB Everyone 10+ / Crude Humor, Fantasy Violence, Mild Language, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact Developer(s) Ubisoft Publisher(s) Ubisoft Multiplayer Local Co-Op Franchise Rayman Number of Players 1-4 players Steam Deck Compatibility Unknown PC Release Date December 3, 2026 Genre(s) Platformer, Action, Adventure