Temple Run by Imagni Studios, LLC is one of the most popular
games available on the iPhone and on Android phones.
The game follows an adventurer who has stolen a gold idol
from a temple and is being chased by ape-like monsters. There is no end to the
game and the objective of the game is to beat highscores.
The menu is well designed. By pressing Options it is
possible to turn on a tutorial for new players. Pressing Stats and Objectives
shows a list of the amount of time played and a list of achievements you can
unlock. The store allows you spend the diamonds found inside the game itself
and buy upgrades to the five different power-ups you can get while playing. You
can also buy utilities that allow you to give a second life or a head start.
For players who have collected a large sum of diamonds and are already have
fully upgraded the power-ups can buy new characters that they can use in game.
Although not particular innovative, these kind of stores are
good at keeping players hooked on the game. The upgrading of power-ups allow
newer users to further boost their high scores and keep them playing in order
to get enough diamonds. For the more experienced players the new characters are
a nice touch of customization that take a long time to achieve and that can add
a little freshness to a repetitive game.
Once inside the actual game play it is quickly clear what
you have to do. A small cut-scene shows the plot of the game – getting chased
after stealing something. You start running and soon the path splits into a
left and right. Intuitively you swipe your finger either way and realize that
this is one of the three basic controls of the game. A while after a hole
appears in the road and you swipe up in order to jump, and as a tree appears
out of nowhere you swipe down in order to slide underneath it. This sums up the
game play. The further you run the faster the game becomes and increasingly
harder as you must react faster and faster. Along the paths are diamonds that
can be used in the store. These increase in value the further along in the game you are.
The narrative has a mass appeal due to its references to the
Indiana Jones movies. It puts the player in place of Harrison Ford as they
steal an artifact and try to outrun the dangers of the temple. Acrobatically
they dodge all kinds of obstacles. The controls are nice and simple and it’s a
good thing they are. As the game increases in speed it’s important that the
controls are a natural reaction to what is happening – swiping up to jump, to
the left to go left and so on. There is no need to remember more complex
combinations of controls where you have to hold more than one button. The
endless format works great for mobile phone games, as they are easy to start up
and restart over and over and all that really matters is beating your old high
score.
Even though the game takes place in an old abandoned temple
in a swap the scenery is very dull design wise. The muted browns and blacks
aren’t very visually appealing and the whole game just seems too dark. As with
many games of this kind, the basic mechanics of the game don’t make a very interesting
game. After a while it isn’t pleasurable to keep running and turning without
any greater purpose than to beat a high score. This is obviously the drawback
of an endless game. While the store does help overcome a small part of this
issue it certainly isn’t enough to keep it as equally exciting each time.
Despite these flaws, Temple Run remains one of the most
played games on the iPhone and has paved the way for similar endless run games.
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