Rayman Adventures is a different take on the series for mobile, and an odd half step between the open exploration of the console original and the twitch reactions of the endless-runners.

This is fortunate, as the greatest parts of the game is moving through its stunning environments and tapping your foot the truly uplifting music. While purchases can form a bottleneck to progression, for the most part Rayman Adventures allows you to progress at a good rate. You have to feed these creatures to take them with you each time, and when you are out of food you have to buy more, or grind for it. Other characters different aid - including short periods of invincibility - but this also introduces the game’s in-app purchases. To help with this, new characters are on hand and will point your towards items in each level in order to nudge you in the right direction. You can find yourself leaping upwards through the beautiful world to find a treasure, only to find another tucked away even higher.

This has created extra verticality in the levels in order to tuck away more secrets. Reach for the skyīut, though the accuracy and heart-pounding tension is gone, Rayman Adventures does add exploration. Greater level freedom also makes attempts last longer - so less well suited to gaming on the go - while the controls needed for this are initially cumbersome. It removes the speed that made the mobile titles feel unique alongside their console siblings. It sounds like a small change at first but it dramatically alters the experience. The only twist is that swiping back on the screen has your heroes change direction. Further swipes have them attack, while taps have them spring into the air or bounce off walls to satisfyingly reach far-off platforms. A single swipe sets the titular hero, Barbara the Barbarian, or any other selected character, off in the appropriate direction.

Initially, the differences are not obvious. Rayman Adventures is a natural evolution of this, keeping the same controls but with more freedom. The fast paced, timing centric games have you leaping, bouncing, and punching your way through their auto-scrolling levels with taps and swipes. The mobile series of Rayman endless-runners have always offered a joyous diversion.

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