iRunner

This game has been installed on my phone since it was released.  If you understood how often I swap out games from my home screens you'd appreciate how much that means.  It's not just that my six year old boy loves this game.  It's also that it is just plain fun.  With over 72,000 reviews in the Android Marketplace and a 4.6 star rating you really can't go wrong with it.  Oh, let's not even mention that it is FREE!  So, why should you even bother with it?  Those of you who read my reviews here on the site know that I appreciate a good pick up and play game.  With all of the entertainment devices vying for our attention these days it isn't often when I have hours to spend playing games on my phone.  If I have that kind of time then I usually prefer to play console or PC games.  iRunner is an absolute blast to play and a very challenging time killer.  The developer has kept pace with the user requests and the latest version has quite a lot to offer for a free game.

Let's talk about polish.  I appreciate the developer who goes the extra mile.  Sure it's great to have good core game play but what about the rest of the package?  Menus, sound effects, use of hard buttons, tutorials, all the stuff that rounds a title out.  iRunner doesn't disappoint at all in these categories.  From the title screen to the integrated achievements to the unobtrusive advertising it is all well done.  Let's start with the menus.  Here you can tweak the options which include swapping the jump and slide buttons and turning off sound and music.  There's also a button here to check on your achievement progress.  No open feint support but maybe that will come later.  For now, the game does offer global high scores which is cool.  They've also added a share link so you can post about the game pretty easily to your facebook account if you like.

In the center of the main menu you'll see our friendly protagonist.  I'm not exactly sure what he is but he sure is cute.  He's somewhat a cross between an animated battery and a claymation gumby.  Well most of you probably don't get the gumby reference but if you did great, if not, go ahead and google it, it's worth it.  So it seems our little guy needs to RUN, JUMP and SLIDE to get the heck out of this world that he is in.  You'll do this through three different game types.  The adventure mode has you trying to get through progressively more levels trying to reach the end of the game.  The Quick Play mode lets you replay any level you've beaten in the Adventure Mode.  Finally the challenge mode is an infinite game where you simply try to stay alive as long as possible and score as many points as you can.  In this last mode is where you'll find the local and global high scores list.

What you have here is a side scrolling game.  As the game scrolls your character stays towards the left side of the screen.  The bottom left portion of the screen makes your character jump with a tap.  The bottom right portion of the screen makes your character slide with a tap.  When sliding, if you hold the button down you will continue to slide until you release it.  When jumping, pressing the jump again while in the air causes a double jump.  This comes in very handy to reach higher locations and also to jump the wider chasms.  Throughout the level are what appear to be batteries, as you eat them pac-man style your battery gauge goes up.  Fill it up and you get bonus points.  It's challenging to try and get all of the batteries as some of them are in very hard to reach places.  Along the way you'll also encounter four types of packages.  Get four distinct packages and your character will power up becoming invincible for a few moments and then speeding up.  He also changes costumes to look like a ninja when you power up. 

On my droid incredible the gameplay is pretty solid.  As you proceed through the levels in Adventure mode things get harder and harder.  So far I've made it through to level 4-5.  In this level the developer had the diabolical idea to make you do the opposite of what you have been doing for the previous levels.  In other words, you are supposed to avoid the prizes.  If you go for the prizes on this level the engine usually places an obstacle that will take one of your precious lives of which at the beginning you are given three.  You can gain additional lives by surviving but it is best to try and not lose them all all.  Another cool feature is that the levels are not fixed, each time you play they are randomly generated.  The backgrounds also change for each stage.  Overall the graphics are very nice and even the music doesn't get too annoying after dozens of plays.  I keep picking this one up to try and beat level 4-5 so hopefully soon I will defeat it.  I can't wait to see what world six brings.

There's just not much I can say that is negative about this one.  About the only real complaint I have is that sometimes the controls don't seem to respond quite right.  For a fast paced game such as this it can mean the difference between life and death.  Many times I know I hit the button but the character did not respond.  This could be my phone but I have also read a few reviews on marketplace that seem to have the same problem.  Hopefully the developer will fix this problem with an update.  Another complain is the lack of Open Feint support which I mentioned above, again, I hope they add this in a future update.  Overall this is a great pick up and play free game that you should go grab and check out.  I don't think you'll be disappointed at all.  By the way, my high score on Challenge Mode is currently around 62,000.  I give it 4.5 out of 5 stars!