Rayman Jungle Run

Summary

Over the years we've become more and more demanding of mobile apps and games. Still, every now and then a game comes along that is an instant crowd pleaser, be it due to its simplicity, complexity, great graphics or cool retro feel.

Many of you will know Rayman, but today let's find out if Rayman Jungle Run is just as intuitive and fun to use.

Test device: Samsung Galaxy S3
Version: Android 4.0.4
Root: Yes
Modifications: None

The required permissions strike us as being straight forward.

Rayman Jungle Run makes a great first impression thanks to the main menu. Rayman himself is to be found on a meadow strumming away on his guitar, a bird whistling along happily. While this scene is bucolic to say the least, it has little to do with the actual game, seeing as Rayman won't get to lounge around but rather run.

Rayman Jungle Run is a classic jump 'n' run game. The goal is to guide Rayman through a given parcours and help him avoid deadly obstacles.

Things start off easy enough, seeing as the first few levels consist of jumps, but each new world brings new challenges with it.

Some fun features: Rayman has to make his way across valleys and so it is very practical indeed that his ears can perform helicopter-like feats, a skill he acquires a little later on in the game and which makes collecting coins that much easier.

I should mention that you run a risk of getting caught in something at some point, but luckily there are bonus lives thanks to hearts which you collect throughout the game and these help prevent you from exploding straight away when you run into a patch of thorns.

In later levels the scenery becomes much hillier, and because slow climbing just isn't Rayman's style he opts to scale or rather run up the wall!

Now, if only there weren't those bothersome green witches to contend with Rayman could simply keep running. If you do come across a witch, stay well clear of her by jumping on her hat and thus using her as a catapult. If the witches have got your goat you can always resort to primal violence and beat them away.

I should also mention the sound effects and music: the former are fine, the latter downright annoying in my book. That's not what I imagine the jungle to sound like, by any stretch of the imagination.

Bottom line:

Rayman Jungle Run is a fun time killer type game that gradually familiarises users with its gameplay.
Controls are simple and straight forward, and the graphics are simply superbe.

The main drawback is that there are only 40 levels, so here's hoping that more are in the works!

Controls are very intuitive and easy to use.

We were equally impressed by Rayman Jungle Run's graphics. The screenshots don't do it justice: it's much more awesome in real. Everything is animated and the game feels very dynimac thanks to sublte changes in the lighting and scenery.

Rayman Jungle Run performed well throughout our test runs.

Rayman Jungle Run coasts EUR 2.39 which is fairly steep, especially considering that this game doesn't have very many levels. That said, I thoroughly enjoy Rayman Jungle Run and wouldn't want to do without it, which makes it worth its pricetag for me.