Sprint Escape

By the time you get to my age, running is no longer something you consider doing for fun or even exercise.

Rather, it's an especially rare activity reserved for the most extreme of cases, such as that desperate last-minute dash to the off-licence on a cold, wet, and lonely Friday night.

Sprint Escape, too, only submits to an (almost) endless run out of necessity: a prison break out attempt.

Whilst being chased down by a guard, it's your job to run through the game's five levels, dashing from block to block as you attempt to make it back to civilisation.

Your input is reduced to two activities: jumping over the scores of objects in your way – tables, banana skins, rubbish bins – or sliding underneath gaps at the bottom of walls.

Unlike in Canabalt on iPhone, mistiming one of these moves doesn't necessarily lead to the game over screen in Sprint Escape. When strung together in quick succession, though, you'll find the guard begins to gain ground.

Fail to get away, and you'll be dropped straight back into your cell, with any further attempts to make a break for it undertaken from the beginning again.

Aside from making it to the finish line, there are keys to pick up to aid your escape.

Most are placed in awkward locations, either right before a slide or high above the main track, but – as with the rest of play – they are usually attainable if you keep your eye on the path ahead and prepare your jumps in advance.

Indeed, what's most impressive about Sprint Escape is, aside from when the game's boost is in play (holding '6' speeds up your sprint for short bursts when available), play rolls by at a pace that's quick enough to keep things interesting, but not so fast it makes avoiding obstacles impossible.

As with many endless runners, Sprint Escape is too repetitive to make it bearable over long periods. It's one best tackled during a spare five minutes, then, perhaps during that late-night walk back from the off-licence.