The Apple TV is out! You want to play games on it! So maybe you picked one up; now you’re stuck with tvOS and you’d like to find something worth playing on it. Right now there aren’t a lot of options, but Rayman Adventures is decent enough and worth a look when you’re getting desperate.
This an endless runner! Yup, remember those games we all got tired of after Canabalt made a little money on the App Store and spawned legions of clones? It’s one of those. This isn’t the first to star Rayman; he’s had a couple of those already in the form of Rayman Jungle Run and Rayman Fiesta Run. Here, though, you’re able to use the Siri Remote to control your character, which is a neat trick that mostly works well; you’re still using touch controls, so absolute precision is impossible, but it does alright.
Despite the endless runner genre having withered from overuse years ago, Rayman Adventures is actually pretty decent. For one, it’s a gorgeous game worthy of the Rayman name; as far as graphics go, Rayman continues to be one of the top series in gaming with its beautiful cartoon art. Next, it implements a few twists on the genre that shake things up a bit; in particular, Rayman can wall jump, bash things like enemies and environmental hazards and even turn around! That last bit helps Rayman Adventures shake off the trappings of endless running to some extent, as while your character runs automatically you’ve got more control over where they go.
Finally, there’s a cute sort of virtual pet system going on that exists largely to free-to-play a some cash out of you. Naturally, I didn’t do much with this, but if you do they’ll provide various minor boosts in the levels such as letting you take an extra hit.
It’s not a terrible game and there are plenty of distractions on top of the main course, like that virtual pet system and some customization options for your characters. Still, if you’re after platforming adventure you’d be better served with Rayman Origins or Rayman Legends on a console. The levels in Rayman Adventures are dragged down a bit by the conventions of its genre. If you’re dead set on playing something on the Apple TV, however, you could certainly do worse than this. And if not, it’s also available on regular iOS and Android if you absolutely need your endless runner action mobile.
