Temple Run (for Android)

Run Android owners, run! Temple Run, the ridiculously addictive free game that has consumed iOS users since last August, finally made its way to the Android operating system today. ?

In Temple Run, you're an Indiana Jones doppelganger who can't stop running. Clutching a golden icon in your hands, your goal is to stay out of the clutches of evil eagle-gorilla hybrid monster things (hey, it's a casual game) and avoid obstacles in your path by tilting and swiping your way through levels. Temple Run is far more engaging than Angry Birds or Cut the Rope because because your hero can only run, jump, and slide, but not stop, so the only way you can look away from your screen is by pausing. Sadly, the Android version crashed often enough in my testing to seriously detract from the fun.

Download From Google Play
Because it's so new, Temple Run was not even among the first ten results to come up in a search in Google Play. Make sure you download the one from Imangi Studios because there are plenty of rip-offs.

Your initial character is Guy Dangerous, a muscular redheaded man running barefoot in ripped threads. He clutches a valuable icon and must run, run, run from a gang of Evil Demon Monkeys. You tilt left and right to turn, swipe up to jump over cracks in the path, or swipe down to slide under tree holes.

The purpose of the game is to score as many points as possible, which would get old fast except that the game's popularity, plus a nifty option to tweet your score, lets you join the smack talk on Twitter. Back in January, Justin Bieber tweeted a screenshot of his high score?9,290,772 on an iOS. Beat that, Android Beliebers.

You can tweak the sensitivity of your gestures on your Android device?a feature that's missing in the iOS version?which makes game play noticeably snappier. You'll want to reduce sensitivity if you're playing on a bumpy ride.

Crisp Graphics
For such a simple game, the graphics are surprisingly detailed. The setting of the entire game is a foggy moat surrounded by motionless water. Obstacles include mossy rocks, cliffs, burning arches, and wooden docks, and they all look great. In my testing, the game looked much brighter the Galaxy Nexus S than on the iPhone 4, though sharpness wasn't noticeably different.

Coins and Power Ups
The real fun starts when you run through enough of the coins on your path to activate power-ups. Power-ups serve different purposes?the first one you get is a Coin power up, which increases the value of coins you collect. A popular power-up is Invisibility, which lets your character plow through obstacles and effectively eliminates the need to worry about swiping. You can use your coins to buy utilities. A popular one is Resurrect, which lets you immediately restart from where you die, rather than at select save points along your path.

Coins can also be used to change your wallpaper or character. There are seven characters total, and the only differences are in their clothes and gender. You can cheat on coins, if you've got the cash. If you'd rather not devote your life to the game you can buy coins with moolah: US$2 will buy you enough to change your wallpaper and $4 will change your character.

Your Device Pays a Price
Yes, the awesome graphics and slick game play were too good to be true. The app killed my battery life. On a Galaxy Nexus my battery went down to four percent from 80 percent; in our testing the device got about six hours of video playback. My phone had also started to heat up.

Temple Run also crashed on me multiple times, all within a minute. I've read similar stories for the iPhone 4, though it seems to work fine for iPhone 4S users.

Temple Run is a good time on your Android device, offering an addictive, arcade-like experience and an entr?e into a Twitter community of devotees. However, I won't be deleting Angry Birds until Temple Run's developers fix some serious bugs. ?

For more Android software, see:
??? Temple Run (for Android)
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