App Review No. 36 Temple Run

Strong Points:
Nice endless runner
Good graphics
Good soundtrack
Good upgrades
Addictive

Weak Points:
Very repetitive-run, slide, jump and repeat
Upgrades get very expensive
Characters don't affect gameplay at all

In-depth Review:

Release Dates:
Worldwide: 27 July, 2011

Controls:
Use your finger to slide and jump as well as turn sharp corners.
Use the Smartphones gyroscopes to collect coins.

The premise of Temple Run is exactly what it says in the title: you run... from a temple. The reason for this: you took a golden idol of some description. Who is chasing you: three demonic black and white monkeys. Why they care about a golden idol: I have absolutely no idea.

Anyway, now that you're running, let's get onto the things that will help and hinder you along the way. The things that want to hinder, hurt, maim and otherwise kill you include: metal gates, steams of fire, roots, trees, the daemonic monkeys we talked about earlier as well as the fearsome, the terrible, the nightmarish... gaps! To help you along the way you have your jumping capabilities (used for metal gates, streams of fire, roots and the nightmarish gaps), sliding skills (used for metal gates, streams of fire and trees), running to the side expertise (roots and certain nightmarish gaps) and, of course your general disgusting taste (daemonic monkeys).

Added to these amazing skills are the powerups which include the mega coin, coin magnet, invisibility, boost and double/triple coins as well as one use items such as the resurrection wings or head start. To begin with these items are reasonably priced at 500 coins each and then 1000 coins but later on they get up to 25000 coins. The one use powerups are also overpriced at 2500 for a head start and 10000 for an already active resurrection wings however the resurrection wings that you have to activate before you die are 500 coins. There are also characters which you can buy but, besides from an aesthetic change, these don't affect gameplay at all.

Also, compared with Temple Run 2, there is not that many things to do in a run besides, well, run. This means that runs can become quite boring and repetitive until you get up to very high speeds as well as meaning that it takes longer to get to a high score. There are some achievements that break up the gameplay slightly but not really enough.

Overall, Temple Run is a great endless runner but is now, sadly, overshadowed by its successor.

Rating: 75%

Goodbye for now, Harry