The complete beginner's guide to Rayman Adventures

Got a shiny new mobile device for Christmas and wondering what to play on it? Well, you can't go far wrong with Rayman Adventures, Ubisoft's gorgeous follow-up to the Gold Award-winning mobile platformers, Jungle Run and Fiesta Run.

A lot has changed for Rayman since his previous mobile outing. For a start, you can now change direction with a simple swipe and explore every nook and cranny of a level like never before.

Then there's the Incrediballs, a valuable (and cute) new collection of allies for Rayman. These can be brought into any level with you once unlocked, providing handy power-ups.

To help you get started with this challenging adventure, we've compiled a few tips and tricks to ensure you get the highest score in every level. Read on!

Use those Incrediballs

It's easy to forget about the Incrediballs at first because they're brand new to this Rayman adventure, but you should absolutely be using them at every single opportunity.

Not only do they offer useful power-ups, which are essential to getting the highest score in some levels, but each one also gives your score a boost when you safely make it to the end.

There are three different types of Incrediball. Seekers will help you find hidden treasure, Lums, and Teensies, while Protectors will take care of enemies that try to hurt you. The third type, Inhalers, will suck up all Lums that come near you.

You can bring up to three with you in any given level, and the intensity of their power-ups will increase when you select more than one of the same type. Use this to your advantage.

With that in mind, you should always be considering which type of Incrediball is the most useful in each of the three different level types. Seekers are best used in levels where you have to find trapped Teensies, Protectors are the most useful in combat levels, and Inhalers are essential when you have to collect as many Lums as possible.

The Lum and combat levels are the only two types that require bringing three members of the same Incrediball family. For example, some Teensie rescue and time trial levels have combat sequences, so Protectors can be useful - and sometimes essential - in those as well.

Exploit Rayman's skillset

While you'll likely spend most of your time admiring those Incrediballs, don't forget that Rayman has a few tricks up his own (invisible) sleeves.

He can punch enemies, ground pound, jump, wall jump, grab onto stuff, and glide.

Now, most of those abilities are self-explanatory, but a bunch of them have secondary abilities that you have to discover for yourself.

For example, you can punch to gain speed - which is essential during the time trial levels. If you punch then jump you'll fling yourself forward with a much greater velocity than a normal jump, and you can chain these together to burn through platforming sections.

Your ground pound can be used not only to take care of enemies and objects blocking your path, but also as an evasive maneuver when you need to stop immediately in the air.

This is also quite handy in time trial mode, as you can ground pound directly onto springy objects like balloons or plants to propel yourself rapidly through a level.

Haven't downloaded Rayman Adventures yet? Well, what are you waiting for! Head on over to the App Store [download] or Google Play [download] to get it right now for free.