What is an Endless Runner and Why Are They So Popular?
When it comes to mobile gaming, some of the most famous and addictive titles are endless runners, but what is exactly an endless runner? Read this article with caution; you could also get hooked
When it comes to mobile gaming, some of the most famous and addictive titles are the endless runners, but what is exactly an endless runner? If you want to know more about these awesome and popular titles, then don’t stop reading because we’re going to give you a full tour through the origins and the basic features of the most popular endless runner games.
What is an endless runner?
An endless runner is exactly what you can deduct from its name, since these games are based on characters running in different directions, depending on the game, on a linear and never ending stage. The backgrounds change while your character keeps running, but remains in the same part of the screen so we can follow his travel.
If you can name some titles whose gameplay is something like this, well those are endless runners. There are many variations to this specific gameplay, but they all consist of the same, since they’re all about a single stage with no end. But how can you win? Well technically you can’t because as the game advances, things start to move faster, more obstacles appear, roads get narrower, etc. At some point, not even cat-like reflexes will be enough to keep playing.
Popular titles of this genre
Maybe you have played some of these titles before, but you didn’t know how they were called. For example, some people affirm that the pioneers of endless runners are games like Jetpack Joyride and Doodle Jump. Even though these titles have different gameplays, they both consist of the same idea; one endless stage with changing backgrounds, in which you run and run until you just can't keep up with the speed of the game.
While these games were the pioneers of this genre, there were other games such as Temple Run that innovated the style of gaming and created a new base for different titles in the future. Temple Run is also a runner, but with a behind-view style of gaming. Even though this is one awesome game, it’s not the best of the genre according to popular opinion.
If we had to grant this title to a franchise, the absolute winner, by number of downloads and playability, would be Subway Surfers and this would lead us to the next segment of our post, in which we’ll discuss the popularity of these games.
Why are they so popular?
Even though today there are many mobile games that require advanced skills to be able to play them, at the beginning mobile gaming was for everyone and this is something that should keep happening. Endless runners are perfect for this, since they’re easy to play, but hard to actually master.
Any player should be able to pick any endless runner available and enjoy it without any trouble; after playing for some time even the most inexperienced amateurs could become great players. It only takes practice to get good results and believe us when we tell you that the process is really fun and addictive.
