Earlier this year, I was enthralled by the rebirth of iconic video game legend Rayman as a near perfectly executed 2D platformer: Rayman Origins. It's arguably the first real Rayman game since its 3D predecessor Hoodlum Havoc, which was first released back in 2003—and it rocks. So much, in fact, that I'm going to be grabbing its sequel Rayman Legends on day one without a moment's hesitation. What I was oblivious of for quite a while is that DotEmu had released a spinoff of the game on Android and iOS, using the same aesthetics and pretty much the same kind of gameplay, only toned down a notch to adjust to the inferior input method of a buttonless touch device. The amazing thing is that while it's a very different game and obviously lacking many of the features that made its big brother awesome, it's still great fun, challenging and absolutely rewarding.
There is a number of mobile games out there that spread a couple of icons over the game screen with the purpose of emulating the buttons on a controller. Unfortunately, while it works to some extent, the lack of tactile feedback is constantly distracting, much the same way an on-screen keyboard is much more prone to causing typing errors than a real one. I realise this may be a lack of skill on my part, but ultimately, it's hard to argue that actual buttons are more comfortable to handle since you can feel them moving under your fingers.
Rayman Jungle Run circumvents all these issues by not bothering with the whole button emulating business. The entire touch screen is your button and the only button you need (technically, this is not entirely correct, since in later stages an icon is displayed that allows you to punch, but other than that it's true!). How do you make Rayman run? A more appropriate question would be how to make him stop. The moment you start the level, Rayman breaks into a dash as if the conflagrations of hell are about to seize hold of him (which, incidentally, in a couple of levels it seems like that's exactly what's happening). So as you watch Rayman go like a Lemming on fire, you have to quickly react to whatever the level designers are throwing at you. Be it bottomless gaps, bloodthirsty foes, spiky tentacles or these insane blue flying one-armed blobs that keep groping for you and let you reach otherwise unreachable spots, you just plant your thumb on the touchscreen to jump at or away from all that. It really is as simple as that, but give it a couple of levels, and it'll be anything but an easy affair.
Of course Ubisoft are not the first to employ this sort of control scheme—when is anyone ever the first with anything in the gaming world anymore?—they're doing it incredibly well, however. The levels are very varied, and whenever you think that things might just be on the verge of getting stale, a new gameplay element is introduced. There are four worlds with ten levels each, and with every completed world you are rewarded with something fresh in the next one. At first, it's only jumping. Then, you can press your thumb on the screen to make Rayman float and maintain air time. After that, you gain the ability to run on walls, and then finally it's punchy-time.
Every level contains one hundred yellow Lums that you have the option to collect, 40 normal ones and the rest in the form of three large golden coins. Ditching them makes most of the game tritely easy, the challenge of collecting them all is what it's really about. Particularly since there's this little extra: If you happen to grab all the Lums in half the levels of any given world, you gain access to a bonus level in the Land of the Dead, where an oddly inappropriate yet awesome Western-style tune is playing. These are bloody tough and take me easily more than 30 tries each, but the way finishing them makes you go Phew! and utter an anxious chuckle is amazing. I love that.
Fun fact: Even though it's not a big game and I've spent quite a bit of time on it already while waiting for my food to be served during lunch breaks, I haven't managed to beat it yet. Not because I suck at the game so hard it has its sweaty foot firmly planted on the back of my neck and keeps me squirming in the mud, not this time at least. No, it's because I own a Galaxy S2. According to the scarce information that I could find on the internet, only users of this particular device experience a game-breaking bug that occasionally crashes the game after finishing a level and deletes one's entire progress. It's unbelievable. And more unbelievable yet is the fact that DotEmu didn't fix that yet, as far as I'm aware. Thus far, I've had this happen to me three times already, once after level 3-9, once after 3-2, and once even after the third level. It's quite a testament to how entertaining the game is that it continues to make me start from the very beginning again and again, frustrating as it may be. Currently, I'm on level 4-1, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the game can muster just enough mercy to please, please let me finish those last ten levels.
I'm actually a little afraid to continue.
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Martin (Friday, 23 November 2012 09:35)
Turns out I could work up the courage to press on after all. And it didn't crash on me! Woohoo! I was actually surprised that nothing special happened after beating the final stage (which was a total bastard and took me quite a while), but then, you already get more than you could ask for considering the low price of the game. Fun times were had!
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