When you're trapped in a world filled with nightmares made flesh and are out for YOUR blood, your best bet is to... RUN FOR YOUR LIFE! Nightmare Runner puts you in the depths of hell in this run and jump shooting game built with a player level upgrade system and in-game pick ups to aid in your escape. With an ambient choir-meets-action movie soundtrack and an easy one button click interface, you get easily entranced into 2D world that flows smoothly with the music and the difficulty. You have an infinite clip of bullets and finite distance to travel for salvation so this evil can be trounced in a single, well-lit sitting.
Never trust blobby pink monstrosities! In this sequel to Nitrome's 2009 action platformer, guide your furry miner with speed but caution through crumbling caverns full of paths that fall away just as suddenly as they fly up before you. Packed full of new beasts, obstacles, power-ups, and now checkpoints, it's a difficult but worthy sequel.
Oh no! The king of the realm needs you to save the princess from the evil clutches of the Dark Knight! Go figure, right? Wind-up Knight is a mobile run and jump adventure very similar to Canabalt HD except you get a fancy sword and armor to fight enemies while dodging traps to make your way to the princess. Convenient items in adventuring, yes, but it won't save you when the Dark Knight starts getting really serious about stopping you. A knight's mettle will never be more tested and neither shall your timing skills as pits, enemies, and environmental dangers stand in your way.
Eugene Yailenko gets frosty... or at least his new action-packed racing game does! In Turbo Kids, race across snowy landscapes, leaping over hazards and firing freezing projectiles at your opponents, to take top prize on various courses, netting upgradeable power-ups and some sweet achievements along the way.
Have you ever watched an Indiana Jones movie and thought "I could totally do all of that stuff. Easy!"? Well, thanks to Imangi Studios, creators of Temple Run, you can give it a shot! Just don't expect hundreds of thousands of adulating fans, actual fortunes gained, or a fine battle-worn fedora to suddenly appear on your melon.
The title says it all: Canabalt HD is Canabalt in HD! The epically popular one button running game that originally appeared in browsers back in 2009 has made its way to the mobile scene before. There's even C64anabalt for the Commodore 64! Now, with bigger, more powerful mobile devices around, this high-definition version of the game comes along, featuring remade 3D backgrounds and smoother animation. Don't worry, though. It's still just as easy to leap out a window and smack into another building!
Farmer Vlad has built a paradise for piggies. He sends a letter to the closest litter, inviting them to vacation in his literal hog heaven. Unfortunately, all sorts of danger lies in their path: bears, wolves, birds, UFOs... A reflex platformer by VladG, 300 Miles to Pigsland takes the non-stop gameplay of Canabalt, sends it through the cute-ifier machine and adds a sprinkling of upgrades, making for a fun, if repetitive, time.
From Halfbrick Studios comes a cave flying-style game with the power to keep you playing for many multiple hours. Jetpack Joyride takes the best from jump-and-run-style games and mixes in a host of achievements, missions, store upgrades, vehicles and more, crafting a game that looks phenomenal and will keep you doing "just one more joyride" dozens of times in a row.
The hermit's son has been kidnapped by demons! Are you a good enough king to rescue him? And, while you're at it, could you do something about that advancing purple wall of doom? And, also, could you tell the peasants to knock it off with all the portentous statements concerning the upcoming apocalypse? Sigh... It seems that a monarch's work is never done. Though by the end of KingStory, the new adventure platformer from KintoGames, you'll at least have a pretty sweet crown on your head. That makes it all worthwhile.
If you've ever wanted to reenact a summer blockbuster sequel in the comfort of your own Flash game screen, Exit Path 2 by jmtb02 will have you running and jumping and dodging lasers like your very own action hero. This time... it's personal. Uniplayer and multiplayer fast-paced jump-and-run action return with a vengeance in an addictive, flashy experience.
Mr. Runner looks so sleek, there's no reason why he shouldn't run quickly. You have three worlds with over a dozen levels each in which to jump, slide, float through the air and die and die and die. Whether you're searching for the five chests hidden in each world or racing to the finish to unlock the next level, you're bound to have 'a few' deaths while figuring out how to get to the end.
I have to admit, if I was ever sucked into a Tron-like computer world, I don't know if I would be able to handle the games they would force me to play. Since getting my motorcycle, I think I could manage a draw in light-cycles, but Deadly Discs? Solar Sailor? Brawls at the End of Line club? I think I'd be derezzed pretty quickly. On the other hand, should the Master Computer challenge me to a game of hangman, I think I could take him. Such is the scenario presented by Langman, the new unity platforming word game from Von Lehe Creative.
Those gosh-darn Giraffe-neck-extending Russkies are at it again! No longer content to simply stretch their ungulates up through the stratosphere, now it seems that they won't be satisfied until they've gone across the horizontal horizon as well. Yes, it's Soviet Rocket Giraffe, an amusing new launch/platformer hybrid from Jmtb02, a guy who knows a little something about launching animals into space. And while some of the elements are more than a little familiar, there's no finer forgotten chapter of the space race than this, comrade.
I think it's about time that I admit that I just don't understand marketing. I wouldn't know why a jump and run platformer based around racing through a myriad selection of websites would be considered an apropos format for an ice cream bar ad . But hey, I do know a good time when I see it, and Lowe Brindfors and B-Reel have certainly given Unilever their money's worth in Magnum: Pleasure Hunt
Bored with running games such as Canabalt and Robot Unicorn Attack? You should be, because they don't have giant squids, lava, lightning, oil slicks, and main characters who are on fire. Flood Runner 3: Armageddon, however, does. We mentioned Clockwork Monster's Flood Runner 2 in a previous Link Dump Friday, and this one's got even more over-the-top action to help you feel like a demi-god dashing through the mortal realms.
The first time I saw my velociraptor avatar trying desperately to outrun the scary wall of doom, I was completely sold. Three years have passed since the release of that Pixeljam racing platformer, and I find myself returning to its charms again and again. However, with time comes change, modification, upgrading, evolution. So is the potent rationale for the release of Dino Run: SE... And from what I've seen so far, it won't be going extinct from my hard drive any time soon.
Adult Swim revisits their incredibly popular arcade game of robotic unicorns and falling stars in this heavy metal re-imagining. While it doesn't reinvent the gameplay, it does provide an alternative for those of you who were always secretly ashamed by how their heart skipped a beat whenever they heard Erasure, and offers up all the addictive play of the original. But how the heck are you supposed to play this and headbang at the same time?! My hair keeps getting in the way!
The first thing I noticed when playing Bits and Pieces, David Lorentz's new platform game, was what a crazy good jumper its pixelated protagonist is. I mean, yeah, most platform heroes wouldn't make it through screen one if they couldn't jump five times their own height, but this dude easily launches himself off like a bottle rocket at the slightest provocation. Good thing though, as making it to the artistically confusing finish will require quite a bit of hopping and/or bopping. And it's a load of fun.
Exit Path is a non-stop, single-and-multiplayer feast for the senses. You'll be running and jumping the field, trying to make your way through a number of screens, each with its own set of challenges, tempted with freedom in a dystopian future, and dodging vicious death machines at every turn. John Cooney has proven himself more than capable of making a wide variety of games, but some of his best work seems to lie in creating fast-paced, action-packed games, and he certainly hasn't missed the mark with this one.
Help Mr Runner run, jump, and slide his way through a treacherous mountainous terrain riddled with lava pools, ice slicks, and anti-gravity fields in this challenging platformer from Bit Battalion. If your fingers twitch and your mouth begins to salivate upon seeing a challenging platformer, Mr. Runner is definitely worth your attention despite its up front flaws.
A one-button jump and run game, G-Switch takes the formula that made Canabalt so successful and adds an eponymous gravity-switching mechanic to create a twitchy, fast-paced experience with surprisingly zen-like results. It's a flawed masterpiece of a game, which is a shame because when it shines it really shines. More than just a clever combination of two well-tread game ideas, G-Switch is a reinvention.
Have you ever wondered what ponies dream about? It's not hay or salt licks. They dream of racing with shiny dolphins across a purple landscape, leaping to avoid smashing into stars and racking up a high score. That's right, they dream of being a magical robot unicorn! And now, thanks to this weird yet addictive two-button game from Adult Swim, so will you. Neigh, my friend. Neigh like you've never neighed before!
Avalanche casts the player as a sled-bound penguin who is just trying to get home to his brood in the face of a relentlessly adversarial natural disaster. It's a running game that will test your agility and reaction as you pilot your little Antarctic hero to safety. It captures many of the features that made Dino Run and Canabalt great and presents them in its own unique way. It is a fine example in company with its worthy forebears.
If you've got a few minutes to kill and can handle a few light tests on your reflexes, Cave Chaos is a great time waster! A "run and jump and avoid" kind of game, your goal is to make it through each level of the cave without falling into the dark abyss below. Problem is, you're on the bats' schedule, here, and the ground only exists in the narrow window between when they build it and when they carry it away!
Adam Atomic's "minimalist" action/arcade side-scrolling game about a man fleeing the destruction of his city is both remarkably well presented, and fiendishly addictive. Vault over the obstacles in your path as you try to stay alive and get the high score. Those giant robots rampaging in the background? They're not there to play patty-cake, so we'd keep moving, if we were you.
Older material from SKT Products, known for oddball classics like the Moai games and Mr. Sweets, Escargone brings you 30 levels of one-switch snail platforming. Although it drags a bit in the beginning, the patient player will be rewarded when it hits its stride in later levels.
Orphan Feast is a hilariously macabre action platformer with great design and story, created by Robox Studios for Adult Swim. You are the gruesome Creaky Tom who has been given the odious task by Oliver Twisted to snatch up children so they can be ground up into pies for greed and "culinary perversion." Probably not a game to play with the little ones. ;)
A simple jump-and-run platformer with style, Space Walker shows that a very simple concept paired with simple graphics can be made into an enjoyable and very pretty casual game experience. Variety in enemy type, enemy movement, and gravity for each level provides an increase in challenge, while a randomized color scheme provides something new to look forward to. Nothing earth-shattering or all that innovative here, just a well-designed package from tip to tail.
The fine folks at Pixeljam have really managed to outdo themselves, bringing us an outlandishly retro, high stakes, mad multiplayer dash for survival called Dino Run. Although there are three modes of play, the idea is basically the same: run as fast as you can! What we love most about Dino Run is neither the perfectly captured retro feel, nor the immense replay value, but the total interactivity your dino has with its surroundings.
Lonely House-Moving is the latest social metaphor driven arcade game from the folks behind everyone's favorite slapping game, Rose and Camellia. You play a lonely shmuck who, after watching his girlfriend leave him in a moving truck, suddenly gets the inspiration to act. Leap over moles, avoid crows and jump over stuff flying out of the truck and try to catch your girl!
Mindscape is a side-scrolling platformer with a... twist, in that the entire level rotates as you play. There are three "worlds" with four levels each, which steadily progress from the creepily joyous Candy Meadows to the joyously creepy Center of Your Mind. It's a brilliantly conceived and executed platformer of the highest level.
Run n' Roll is an online multiplayer flash game that lets you play chase with people from around the world. Your character runs on his or her own, all you have to do is jump over or roll under objects. You stay ahead by, well, not falling behind. Grab a few fun power-ups to stall your opponent as you race around a giant sphere in the sky.
Classroom Pitfall is a well-made game with fairly simple gameplay reminiscent of the classic Pitfall, in which the primary objective is to make it safely from point A to point B. The difference being that each level of Classroom Pitfall takes place in a different classroom, such as Gym or History, and the obstacles and pitfalls are objects you might find in a classroom, such as compasses and protractors.
Sporting stylized graphics and an infectious soundtrack, GunRun delivers the goods with flair in classic arcade action style. This beautiful 2D side-scrolling shooter was created in Flash by Felix Reidl of Germany.
Cave Story, or Doukutsu Monogatari, is a superb 2D platformer reminiscent of early platform games for the NES. Created by Pixel, it is a well-made and highly polished game with a superb storyline and brilliant gameplay that is altogether very enjoyable to play. The game requires a download, for Mac or PC, and is most highly recommended!
I have been mesmerized lately by the cuteness of this little Flash platformer, and for good reason. First off, it's got the cute thing going for it, and that always works for me. The way Snowy the little bear just prances in place while waiting for you to move him around is cuteness beyond words. Second, the game is a lot of fun to play for gamers of all ages.
Those talented NeoDelight boys from Germany strike again, and this time with a brand new Flash platformer. With Alex in Danger you can run, jump and shoot badies to your heart's content. Alex is a very pretty game, and its responsive controls give it the needed boost in the gameplay department.
The Sonic experience recreated in Flash by a fan who loves Sonic games. The game contains an extensive list of features including 4 playable characters: Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Cream, with 2 more to unlock. Everything about this game is polished, though the game window is quite small.
The Curse of Sylvaniah is an action adventure platformer game created in Flash that has a decidedly old-school feel to it. Stylish pixel graphics, sampled sound effects, multiple weapons and a simple targeting system—just point-and-click with the mouse—make this game unique and fun to play. Coding by Mattias Stridsman, graphics by Cyril...
More Flash fun with pixel graphics, this time from the BBC's 6 Music digital network. 6ixel is a platform game that has 6 levels of increasing difficulty, and each one highlights a different artist or group: Bob Marley, The Clash, Alanis Morissette, New Order, Run DMC/Aerosmith, The Strokes.
Alien Hominid is a fast-paced 2D side-scroller in which players must run, jump and shoot their way across the globe in pursuit of the alien's coveted UFO. Also sporting 2-player madness, this game is a truly original title with outstanding hand drawn cel-shaded graphics and animation.
I came across this version of the original Prince of Persia game recreated in Flash, and wanted to share it. The original game, created by Jordan Mechner and released in 1989, used an animation technique called rotoscope to give the characters human-like qualities. It was also a lot of fun to play. So check out this special Flash edition and get a taste of what the original was like.
This gorgeous game, titled "The Malibu 9 Rescues Mr. Malibu (and 6/9 of the Deepfried Posse)", was originally from a club, Club Malibu, in Stockholm, Sweden, that may not even be in existence any longer (you know how clubs just come and go). Top notch production in a fun little Flash game.