Friday Five... Temple Run clones

It's not often that a game is so popular that it single-handedly gives rise to an entire army of copycats. But, considering the sheer number of 3D endless-runners on iOS that followed in its wake, Imangi Studio's Temple Run is officially a genre pioneer.

Sure, they have mostly been abysmal clones (trust us - we've played them), and, yes, the worst offenders have even been booted off the App Store.

But, there are some more-than-decent Temple Run-inspired titles out there, too. You can hardly call them original, but at least these five 3D endless-runners had the decency to swap Imangi's adventurer for a raccoon, or a man famous for drinking his own pee.

By making Subway Surfers's course a multi-layered playground, Sybo Games puts a clever twist on the endless-runner genre. So, you can dawdle about on the train tracks, or leap up onto the caboose roofs for more coins.

It's got a scrumptious cartoon style, doesn't employ tilt controls (thank heavens), and - in a touch of social genius - displays your rivals' Game Center photos above the in-game score markers. Definitely the best of the bunch.

In most Temple Run-esque games, your goal is to pick up coins. But, in the ravaged post-apocalyptic wasteland of TheEndApp, there's a more precious element than gold: duct tape.

That's right. As you bound over burning cars and tilt past pools of lava, your hunky survivor collects rolls of adhesive tape. I wonder if you'll find out what he's doing with all that stuff at the end of the 14-chapter story?

It's bear vs Bear, as UK television's most famous urine-guzzling adventurer is chased through the wilderness by an angry grizzly.

The ex-Born Survivor host dashes through jungles, deserts, and arctic areas collecting tokens and leaping over stampeding animals.

All the while, Bear encourages you via voice-over clips that range from "Good job!" to "Yeah. Not bad. I'm happy with that."

Even French publishing house Bulkypix jumped on the Temple Run bandwagon with this cartoony entry. You play as Aby, an anthropomorphised raccoon who must escape a band of redneck hunters.

It's not the best of the bunch - Aby feels rather slow and stodgy to control - but the game's colourful style and sheer variety of locations makes it a fun run.

Okay, so it's a little unfair to call this one a clone. Disney did hire Imangi - the US developer behind Temple Run - to produce a special version of its hit endless-running app for Scottish CGI epic Brave, after all.

Expect the exact same game, only with the adventurer replaced by carrot-top archer Merida, a demon bear substituted for demon monkeys, and some nifty arrow bits.