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Temple Run (iPhone / iPad)
by cath_del
Temple Run is developed by Imangi Studios for both the iPhone and iPad, however I think it will be coming to Android soon to due to the craze it seems to have created.The best part about the game has to be that it is free, and while it is classed as a freemium game, I don't really know why you'd need to purchase currency from it as it's ... so easily obtained throughout the game.
The game centres around a single player escaping from a temple after they have stolen an idol from an ancient temple. Using the touchscreen, you have to control the character and make sure that they don't fall off the ledges the character runs across, jumping over the gaps in the ledges and ducking under trees. However, if you miss any of these obstacles it will either lead you to your death or bring you closer to the group of monkeys that have started to chase you after you steal their idol.
There is no finish line or time limit to the game, so you really can play as long as you can survive, something that kept me motivated as I was determined to beat my high score. It really is a game that will have you addicted from the moment you press play. As you play though, there are many coins scattered about the level, and you not only have to swipe to move the character but must remember to tilt your iPhone/iPad to collect the coins as you run.
These coins are a part of the currency that you can purchase with real money, but as I said before its not worth it as you are likely to get addicted to this game and make the amount you could have bought in at least an hour. These coins that you collect can be used for various powerups to use throughout the game, which was one factor that kept me motivated to play at the beginning as I wanted to collect all of them. However, after about a week I had collected all of them so didn't really have much motivation other than beating my high score to play.
You can level each of the powerups 5 times, with each increasing in the amount that you earn from them making them more and more useful as the game progresses and once they are fully upgraded this is as much as you can do. Then there is the utilities, which can only be used once but you can buy as many as you want, generally these are things that will either give you a boost in the game or help keep you alive for a short amount of time. Lastly, you have the ability to upgrade the characters in the game to play as different characters, they don't change the gameplay but it's nice to change it up sometimes.
Below are the powerups and other customising aspects of Temple Run:
-Mega Coin - gives you a coin boost
-Coin Magnet - allows you to collect coins without tilting
-Invisibility - allows you to run through all of the roots and ledges and not die
-Boost - makes you run faster through ledges to give you more points
-Coin Values - gives more variety to the coins you can collect
Utilities
-Ressurect - when active allows you to come back to life after death
-Boost 1000m
-Boost 2500m
Characters
-Guy Dangerous
-Scarlett Fox
-Barry Bones
-Karma Lee
-Montana Smith
-Francisco Montoya
-Zack Wonder
Temple Run connects up to GameCentre so you can compete against your friends on that for the highest score, and as you play they put friend markers to show their score against yours if you pass it when running. They've also put a nice amount of achievements in the game to keep you occupied and while some of them are pretty easy, there are harder ones like achieving 10 million points or reaching 1 million without getting a single coin.
Many people seemed to think that the graphics weren't as good for an iPhone/iPad game as they expected. However, I don't see the problem with them, especially as they are free and the developers have made them of good quality for this. In fact, the game is so fast paced you hardly even notice them as you are playing.
The sound is okay for the game, however I tend to play it with it muted as after a while the drumming sound can get pretty repetitive and annoying combined with the twinkly sound when you get the coins. For a short play, this would be fine, but I normally play for around 15 minutes at a time so it can get quite annoying.
The controls are really easy and anyone would be able to play as it just requires you to swipe left, right, up or down to make the character move. The only thing you have to worry about is your timing and judgement cause if its too soon or too late you might fall to your death! Yet, anyone can play this, as even my younger sister could play it.
Overall, this is a really great game for the iPad/iPhone, especially as it is free! There is quite a bit to collect and it's so addictive that you'll probably keep playing till you beat your high score and get all the achievements (at least thats what I ended up doing!)
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