My mega playthrough of the Rayman series last year has deepened my appreciation for the series. The previous two smart device games, Jungle Run and Fiesta Run, were great and good respectively. My expectations for this game were therefore very high, especially when I found that it would contain new characters and concepts.
The wait after the game had soft-launched in New Zealand was painful. Then, it launched worldwide, but exclusively for the new Apple TV, in a weirdly skewed version of the Rayman Legends release. Turns out that the game can be played as an auto-runner like the last two, but using an Apple TV controller remote thing changed it into a free-moving style. I played it on iPad and got along perfectly fine.
Adventures really pushes the free-to-play model hard, but somehow it comes out less obnoxious than Fiesta Run. It’s been more thoughtfully designed to keep players coming back and with lots of unlockables, rather than just milking them for powerups. I still prefer Jungle Run’s simple and pure model, where I can play as many levels as I choose and perfect them, but Adventures feels fresh, plays well, and isn’t too annoying.
Excitingly, the game has an original plot. There’s something about a magic tree, and these friendly blobby creatures, and an enthusiastic ship captain guy with a flying boat. So it’s not super deep but a game like this introducing new lore is a nice bonus. The nebulous goal is to collect many creatures to restore the tree, which feels like it would require months of constant play to achieve, and I’ve started to see repeated levels so I probably won’t sustain that long.
The game has a strange and restrictive play system: you travel to one of the 5 primary worlds from Legends, do 2 or 3 levels plus an optional harder level, then get an egg and have to wait several hours for it to hatch before you can do more levels. It’s frustrating to adjust to this new “short bursts” play style but that’s what the game demands if you want to enjoy the new levels. These are the highlight of the package, coming in several varieties. For example, you may need to collect Lums, race to the finish, or defeat enemies. But the way the game uses the conventions of Legends and its own tasks to design imaginative and fun (though short) levels is the reason to play.
The blobby thingamajigs help you by scouting secrets, sucking in Lums, or giving you a damage shield. It’s not often necessary to use them; in fact I feel that their usefulness doesn’t live up to their promise. Filling up your collection of them is satisfying though, akin to Legends’ “creatures” but more fleshed out and with an unfortunate “rarity” system. As the big new gameplay mechanic they do a good job building the game around them, but I just don’t feel the need to use them most of the time.
The achievements are a good incentive, the new costumes for the four characters are neat, and the levels have nice variety. But the controls can be finicky with an expanded moveset reduced to taps or swipes. The reuse of Legends material is well done, along with introduction of unused concepts from that game such as Dracula’s Castle, ghosts, and flying pigs. You may get annoyed at the slow trickle of crystals, the game’s premium currency. As you can see, my feelings are a little mixed but my takeaway after some time of playing is positive. I heartily recommend giving it a go for as long as you can stand it.
