1000 Heroz

Why spend tens of billions of pounds on hosting the Summer Olympics when that handy phone in your pocket can serve up a dash to the finish line each and every day?

RedLynx's decision to split its intentionally simple series of sprints into unique, 24-hour competitions is a masterstroke, and one that's caught on in double quick time.

At the time of going to press, 1000 Heroz is less than a week old, yet each race's leaderboard is clogged up with thousands of entries within hours of the curtain being raised.

There's no questioning the popularity of the format the developer has employed, but when it comes to the quality of content, 1000 Heroz is no foregone conclusion.

The game's biggest strength is that it's incredibly habit forming. Each day you open up the app, there's a new race to take on, where the goal is to post as fast a time as possible - preferably beating the rest of the world in the process.

Each track is coupled with a fresh character to control, most of which evoke memories of Hanna-Barbera-styled cavemen.

But, though runners are fleshed out with their own comical backstories, none bring anything unique to the races themselves and instead merely act as vessels for your dash to the line.

They're deliberately difficult to control, too. Your input might be limited to running and jumping, but maintaining any sense of balance during your sprint (runners sway backwards and forwards as if striding upon the deck of a ship in the midst of a storm) is one of 1000 Heroz's biggest challenges.

That's largely because the design of the courses themselves doesn't make things easy, with each posing a number of questions.

Should you jump over that rock, or will that harm your momentum? Does the ledge above the main path offer a shortcut, or will it hold you back? If you leap across that cavern in good time, will you miss out on the boost provided by that trap hidden in the undergrowth?

Of course, given most courses clock in at under 20 seconds, making mistakes is part and parcel of 1000 Heroz's set up, and each one is easily rectified by having a second crack mere moments later.

It does, however, make the game a case of trial and error in the extreme, and it's especially difficult to pin down just what route 1000 Heroz wants you to take on first run-through.

A bitter pill?

Far too often, you'll make what you think is a blooper, only to see it unexpectedly propel you towards the finish line. Likewise, nailing down what you deduce to be the perfect run often bears little fruit, as you post a slower time than usual.

Those sitting at the top of the scoreboards may well disagree, but determining just what you need to achieve in each level is just as hard a task as actually pulling it off.

Luck has a larger role to play than either judgment or skill in many of the races, and it's often impossible to decipher where things went so right in even your best attempts. In any other game, fundamental crimes such as these would be unforgivable, but it's impossible to ignore the appeal of 1000 Heroz with or without its quirks.

The debate as to how much influence the player has over posting a top time will rage on, yet the unavoidable feeling of smugness that accompanies a high placing on the leaderboards cements 1000 Heroz's status as a drug even an Olympic committee would be hard pressed to ban.

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