by Last year’s Rayman Jungle Run was a real surprise — a game built using the same engine and familiar art assets from the excellent and robust console action game, Rayman Origins, but recast as a mobile auto-runner. The limited game mechanics and breezy nature of the stages paired well with the light and funny tone of the game, but the resulting romp felt more like a nice treat rather than anything truly substantial.
By contrast, Rayman Fiesta Run has teeth. The mechanics haven’t significantly changed, and the game is still as amusing and beautifully presented as before, but a revised level progression and brutally precise platform action make for an absorbing and terrifically challenging experience. Even if you’re not the type to play and replay stages for high scores or collectables, Fiesta Run will pinpoint your perfectionist streak and make you leap and lunge until every last glowing Lum is in hand.
As with last year’s game, Fiesta Run sends the cartoonish lead and his allies sprinting ahead on side-scrolling stages, with taps and holds of virtual buttons used to jump, glide through the air, and punch or kick enemies and hazards ahead. Much of Jungle Run was segmented to spotlight and slowly introduce each mechanic, but most of Fiesta Run’s 75+ stages put everything together at once, requiring a mix of quick reflexes and smart memorization to survive the tense gauntlets within.
Fiesta Run’s smartest alteration may come with the introduction of a world map, which unlocks new stages, characters, and items based on your performance — and casually finishing most stages won’t be enough to access most of the content here. You’ll often need to replay and potentially perfect past stages to move another step or two along the path to open up more stages, and that constant pull to play more and nudge further adds a noticeable hook to the experience.
Once a stage is perfected, a much tougher alternate version unlocks that shakes up the level elements, layout, and timing requirements. It’s an ingenious approach that nearly doubles the amount of levels without feeling lazy or half-hearted, and the alternate versions are among the best challenges in the game, requiring incredible precision and care to clear. Levels in which you’re escaping from large, lumbering boss creatures are also highlights along the way. The trial-and-error approach of figuring out a stage’s hazards has its frustrating moments, but it’s all worth it once you reach the finish line.
The bottom line. Rayman Fiesta Run may not dramatically deviate from the formula, but it maximizes the excellence held within and delivers a richly entertaining mobile platformer that’s tough, funny, and ultimately pretty wonderful.
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