Game Review - Temple Run

Temple Run
Developers: Imangi Studios
Genre: Endless Runner
Platforms: iOS, Android, Windows Phone 8

I was contemplating various other games to use as my third review. Angry Birds and Candy Crush were easy choices, but they but use the same level based gameplay style. I wanted to cover an endless runner because of how popular and successful they are, but it wasn't till I did the questionnaire and looked at the results that I decided which one I'd do. Temple Run scored almost as high as Angry Birds as a game people had on their phones. As such this is the next and probably last game I'll be analysing before this project ends.

As a play-style endless runners are one of the oldest and most used gameplay styles to date, so what's different or well done about Temple Run that makes it successful?

Visually Temple Run is more impressive than most other successful games. It shies away from cartoony or technicolour graphics, and instead uses comparatively detailed textures for its environments, which creates a different, more exciting and mature and realistic vibe for the game, as opposed to the more childish graphics of Candy Crush or Angry Birds.

It's also 3-Dimensional and uses a third-person camera compared to other endless runners that are 2D side scrollers. It can be argued that compared to console games the graphics are rather pixelated and grainy, and that the animation and shapes lack the cleanness and crispness that more recent games possess, but for its age it's still a decent looking game.


Moving onto gameplay itself, your default playable character is an explorer who's running in true Indiana Jones style from a bunch of hellish looking black creatures, who're chasing him because he's stolen their ancient relic. Your job is to keep him alive as you navigate the temple pathways to evade his freaky pursuers, even though no visible end will ever be in sight.

It's not a clear path though; the path is full of twists and turns that require quick reactions to manoeuvre and there are multiple obstacles and death drops that require jumping over or ducking under. Also, contrary to what happens in the real world, the characters running gets quicker as he's kept alive for longer, so obstacles get harder to avoid, and you have to be more precise with every move you make.


With the 3-Dimensional level style, the way the character is controlled becomes slightly more complicated. The path you're running on is always a single path, but you're not confined to running along a set line.

The game makes use of the tilt detection mechanism that smartphones have, and this allows you to move the character to the left or right of the temple path, although sometimes can lead you to send him of the edge when the path has no sidewalls.

Finger sliding on the touchscreen is instead used to make the character jump, duck, or to make the character demonstrate super-human turning ability when the path swerves of at sharp right angle either left or right.

Depending on the obstacle, it is possible to take a hit and not get caught by the creatures following you, but if you make another wrong move afterwards they'll be onto you in a secind. Even so, as you play the game your cause of death is far more likely to be the scenery than it is the creatures following you.


So in an endless runner like Temple Run, you know that there's no end of level; no way of actually completing it. By itself that would be very boring and more than likely you wouldn't keep playing for very long. So what other mechanics exist in this game to make people want to pick it up and play it again?

First of all there is the scoring and leaderboard system. The vast majority of app games out there have a scoring system in them and Temple Run is no different. Like most endless runners higher scores are earned the longer you run for, and your high score is then recorded and shared on a main leaderboard.

You can also see the scores achieved by your friends when they've played the game. Furthermore when you play the level, the names of your friends will appear above the course, at the point they reached on their furthest run, and it can be satisfying running under those names and pressing on with added smugness.


The other key element is coins. You find these in abundance throughout the level as you run. They come in gold, red or blue depending on their value, and they're most commonly found in long rows on either the left, right or centre of the path, although sometimes they require jumping and ducking to obtain as well. The higher value coins only appear after making it past a certain point, which serves as an incentive to keep surviving.

Often these coins will be the big reason for using the tilt mechanic as you try and collect as many as possible, and often times these will also be the reason you make a mistake, when your eyes are drawn away from the obstacle laden path by these glittering prizes.

The coins add up over time and as you progress in the level a score multiplier increases as more are collected. If you trip however and allow the creatures (apparently they're demon monkeys) to gain on you the multiplier reverts back to base and the work has to be done from scratch.


These coins are your currency in the game. When enough have been collected you can use them to unlock power-ups to make the levels easier. Once unlocked the power-ups start randomly appearing in the levels and its always a welcome sight when one appears, and annoying when you end up missing

Once you've initially bought a power-up you can then invest more coin into upgrading them to increase their effect or their duration. Power-ups include a temporary magnetic field that draws coins to you without the need to tilt, gaining invincibility from obstacles for a short time, and gaining a sudden sped boosts that rockets you forward in the level a couple of hundred meters.

You don't just have to stick with the default character either. There are also additional characters that can be unlocked by investing some of your coins into them. They're expensive though, so a good deal of play is needed.

The game also isn't without the choice of in-game purchases. If you're really impatient for coins and don't feel like getting them inside the level, various coin amounts can be purchased for a reasonable amount of money. There is a lot of unlockable content, and collecting enough coins to get it all can be tedious and hassle-full. The purchases provide a solution to that, if you're willing to give a little in return.

Temple Run combines all of these elements together, and it seems they've worked supremely effectively. is both successful and influential as, since its release, its style has been very similarly replicated and adapted in other app games, most notably Subway Surfers, another commercially successful app game whose game elements and mechanics are remarkably similar to Temple Run's.

Since its original release in 2011 on the iOS Temple Run has also become a game franchise in its own right and now has a sequel game: Temple Run 2, as well as two film adapted versions based on Disney's Brave and Disney's Oz the Great and Powerful.

The game really grows on you quickly, as I found out when I played it for the sake of writing this analysis. Consistently Temple Run is critically acclaimed as an very good game, and although its not without flaw, it does its job as an app game. It's addictive, it's exciting and it's fun.


Temple Run Logo
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