Now I know what you're thinking. "Mobile games? Mobile games? C'mon, Madcap! You don't do a Game Review since your big ol' 10th Anniversary back in May, leaving everyone hanging and breaking your week format for said anniversary date, and the best that you come up with is a mobile game?
Well thank you for your concern, voices in my head, but it is my blog.
That said, here's a mobile game. Yes, a mobile game that is also celebrating its tenth anniversary this year - namely Temple Run. Temple Run is brought to us by developer/publisher Imangi Studios and has given rise to the endless runner genre, an evolution of the platformer in that instead of moving from left to right along a 2D axis, the player runs in a simulated 3D scenario...forever. The player can be one of several different skins, including an escape artist, a city cop, a woman with the fastest legs in the far East, the second greatest explorer ever (the first is probably some other guy), a Spanish conquistador, or a football star.
There doesn't seem to be too much of a difference between them, having played with all of them for a bit. The jump arcs are a little longer or narrower, but that really seems to be it.
Enough about these skins, though, what is the plot of Temple Run? What is the real meat? Well, you're running from a temple after stealing an artifact while being chased by demonic monkey things. So it is rather like the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark, if instead of a giant boulder Indy was running from demonic monkeys.
. . .is that in one of the spin-off novels or comics?
I feel like that needs to be in one of the spin-off novels or comics.
Regardless, Temple Run is just that - running through a Central/South American-style ancient temple...forever. You leap over (swipe up) and duck under obstacles (swipe down), gather coins (run into them), and try not to die in a variety of ways such as falling to your death, drowning, being burned alive, and (my personal favorite) being eaten alive by demonic monkey things.
. . .that last one is offscreen, by the way. Only really implied that you've become the barbecue plate special.
That's really all there is to it. There are power ups within the game such as a magnet that draws the coins to you for a limited time, a pair of wings that let you resurrect from a death to continue running, and others. Basically, with the game itself having no end, it's all about the numbers. In particular, the number of coins. A small store exists where those add-ons as well as others can be bought, including the alternative skins I mentioned above. While microtransactions do exist, they aren't prominently featured and the game doesn't push them on you like certain other developers (looking at you, EA!).
It's fun. Kind of a mindless sort of thing that can feel like a bit of a grind, but the pleasing aesthetics, fitting music, and very responsive and high-speed gameplay make this pretty fun. Something you could easily have on your phone, play for a while, then leave and forget for a while before coming back to it again.
It's had a sequel, several spin-offs, and a bunch of copycats even to the point of blatantly ripping off assets. It might even be turned into a movie (as of 2013, at least. Not sure if that's still on the table, but this could work as a neat concept). Plus, it's been around for ten years and doesn't seem to be stopping. So there is a something here, not a nothing here. This is probably where most game reviewers would come up with some flowery line to go out on. However, I shall end with a joke:
What did the Buddhist monk say when he was asked to leave the temple?
Namaste.
. . .
. . .yeah, to be fair, he was probably the one to become the barbecue plate special for demon monkey things.
Temple Run is brought to us by Imangi Studios and is available on iOS, Android, and Windows Phone.
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