Temple Run 2

In Temple Run, the player controls either Guy Dangerous, an explorer, Scarlett Fox, an escape artist, Barry Bones, a city cop, Karma Lee, the fastest runner in the Far East, Montana Smith, the “second greatest explorer ever” (referring to Indiana Jones being the greatest explorer; Montana Smith even looks like him, although in Temple Run 2 he looks more like a cowboy), Francisco Montoya, a Spanish conquistador, or Zack Wonder, a football star. The character chosen will embark on an adventure to seek an ancient and valuable golden idol from an Aztec temple. They will not realize that the temple is inhabited by a family of demonic monkeys who want to devour them. As the game is an endless running game, there is no end to the temple; the player plays until the character collides into a large obstacle, falls into the water or is overtaken by the demon monkeys.

Temple Run

While the character is running, the player can tilt the device left or right to move the character to either side of the screen to collect coins and/or avoid obstacles. There are three types of coins to be found while the character is running: gold, red, and blue. A gold coin will only add one coin to the player’s total number of coins. Red coins are worth two coins, while blue coins are worth three. The coins can be used to buy and then upgrade power-ups and/or other characters. Coins can also be bought by the player through in-app purchases with payments of actual money. When the player needs to turn left or right, the touchscreen can be swiped in the corresponding direction. If the player wishes to jump over an object, the screen can be swiped upwards; if the player wishes to slide under an object, the screen can be swiped downwards.

Release[edit]
Since its initial release on the App Store on August 4, 2011,[3] the popularity of the game has soared,[11] to the point that Imangi Studios became more popular than Zynga.[12] In the wake of this success, other developers created games of a similar style, such as Temple Guns, Temple Jump,[11]Piggy Run,Zombie Run and Pyramid Run.[13]

In the iTunes Store, the game was included in the top 50 most-downloaded apps in December 2011,[14] and eventually became the number one free iOS app in the Store. It also reached the position of the top grossing iOS app.[15] Originally, the game was 99 cents to download, but Imangi switched the game to a freemium app prior to December 2011, which instead relied on players purchasing in-game coins with legal tender.[16]

On January 12, 2012, Imangi announced on the Temple Run Facebook page that the game would be released for the Android platform in February, saying “We’re so excited to announce this and appreciate all of our fans’ support across both platforms!”[17] The game was released on Google Play on March 27, 2012, a month later than expected.[18] After Temple Run was released on Android, it was downloaded one million times in under three days.[19]

As Temple Run was originally released with a custom, flexible engine on iOS, there were some difficulties when it was ported to Android, primarily related to the use of the Unity game engine. The game frequently crashed,[20] occasionally caused devices to overheat, and drained battery life extremely quickly.[21] This led to generally unfavourable reviews.[22] Unlike the iOS version, the Android version was always freemium.

On March 27, 2013, the game was released for Windows Phone 8.[5]

Spinoffs[edit]
Temple Run: Brave[edit]
Temple Run: Brave
Temple Run Brave logo.png
App logo
Developer(s) Imangi Studios[1]
Publisher(s) Disney Interactive Studios
Engine Unity Edit this on Wikidata
Platform(s) iOS, Android, Windows 8, Windows RT, Windows Phone 8, BlackBerry 10
Release iOS & Android
WW: June 14, 2012[23][24]
Windows 8 & Windows RT
WW: May 10, 2013[25]
Windows Phone 8
WW: June 7, 2013[26] BlackBerry 10
WW: April 3, 2014[27]
Genre(s) Endless runner/Action
Mode(s) Single-player
In June 2012, it was announced that Imangi had teamed with Disney to promote the film Brave via a Temple Run-style game titled Temple Run: Brave. The game was released on June 14 for iOS and Android.[23][24] As with Temple Run when it was initially released, Temple Run: Brave cost 99 cents to purchase.[28] After Temple Run: Brave’s release on the App Store, the game topped the charts as the most-downloaded paid game.[29]

Temple Run: Brave is set in the highlands of Scotland. The default character is Merida, and as in the original game, the objective is to keep running, avoiding the dangers along the way in an effort to achieve the longest time possible, while being chased by the demon bear, Mor'du.[30]

The new feature for Temple Run: Brave is archery. During the run, archery symbols appear with some dots above them, acting as a signal that there will be bullseyes at which to shoot. The dots are the number of targets in the area. On the left and right sides, the player will then find archery targets, and by touching the screen, an arrow is shot accurately at the upcoming target. When the player finishes hitting all targets in the area, they get a coin bonus, and must then wait for another area with archery targets.[31]

In an update, Temple Run: Brave received a new power-up, the “Will-o’-the-Wisps”, which appear in the game randomly. When the player grabs it, they are transported to a “dark” version of the game world, where glowing wisps appear in the player’s path. The player has to grab as many as they can, while still navigating the turns and jumps.[32]

In 2013, Temple Run: Brave was ported to Windows Phone 8,[26] and both Windows 8 and Windows RT (via Windows Store).[25] In 2014, it was ported to BlackBerry 10.[27]

Temple Run: Oz[edit]
A second spinoff game, called Temple Run: Oz, based on the Disney film Oz the Great and Powerful, was released on February 27, 2013, for iOS, to coincide with the release of the film.[33] On August 28, 2013, Temple Run: Oz was released for Windows Phone 8.[34]