Game Reviews

Amazing Runner

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iOS
| Amazing Runner
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Amazing Runner
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iOS
| Amazing Runner

In terms of original content, the best thing that can be said about Amazing Runner is it doesn't have any zombies in it. It's the latest in a seemingly endless run of Temple Run clones, each adding enough to the formula to count as a new game.

The additions here are slight - you can run on walls and the ceiling at certain parts, and smash through some obstacles - but they come together to make an experience that, while derivative, still manages to be reasonably exciting.

Futuristic cheese it

The game is set in a cartoon-style future, and tasks you with running as far as you can before your timing or concentration falls short. So you sprint across a brightly coloured raceway, dodging and leaping where necessary.

The big twist - other than the aforementioned wall and ceiling running sections - are giant corkscrew-like whirls in the track. These require you to rapidly swipe your finger in a circular motion to keep your feet on the ground. It's an interesting change, but it's hardly a grand shift in the mechanics of the genre.

The rest of the controls are familiar - slide up to jump, tap to smash things, and tilt your iOS device to collect the shiny gold coins that are arranged so tantalisingly around the bends and twists of the running track.

Augmented

The coins you collect can be spent on various boosts and single-use items, as well as on purchasing new avatars to keep things interesting when you're sprinting. The power-ups are the standard fare - a mix of bursts of speed and ways of making coin collection easier.

Amazing Runner does everything by the book. It's not revolutionary, and it's not going to make you stand up and pay attention to endless-runners if you've not given two hoots about them before.

Nor will it do anything to soothe the ire of those jaded by the neverending stream of new entrants to the genre. If, however, you can't get enough of running forwards and jumping over things, there's enough innovation here to keep you entertained for a good while.

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Amazing Runner

Another endless-runner that does everything perfectly well, Amazing Runner doesn't quite live up to its title, but it's entertaining all the same
Score
Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.