Temple Run is a simple, addictive mobile game with one goal: run as far as you can. In Temple Run, you control a hero attempting to escape from a temple with a priceless artifact. In order to escape, you have to run along a dangerous, narrow, and exhilarating path while being chased by evil monkeys.

Temple Run is perhaps best described as a third-person platformer that's somewhat similar to the Sonic games. In Temple Run, you control a running person from the viewpoint of a 3d camera that stays behind them. Your character runs automatically, allowing you to concentrate on steering, ducking, and sliding past obstacles. Unlike in other games, in Temple Run, one mistake almost always means the end of a run.

That's not a bad thing, though! Temple Run isn't an easy game by any means, but it's also not a game where you're worried about losing progress. Each time you die, you restart from the beginning of the temple. This means you get another chance to get a high score by getting very far away from the temple before you die.

Temple Run presents both obstacles and rewards as you run away from the monkeys. Obstacles include gaps that you have to jump over by swiping up, tree branches and other obstacles that you have to slide under by swiping down, and sudden turns along the path. In order to turn, you can swipe in either direction. Turns include both sudden angles and intersections, giving you the ability to choose your path.

As you progress in your run, you'll find a number of coins on the path, often in straight lines. Running through these coins will pick them up, giving you currency you can spend in an in-game shop. Red coins give you two normal coins worth of currency, while blue coins give three.

Just because the coins are in your path doesn't mean they're trivial to pick up. Instead, Temple Run has multiple lanes along the main road that your character can run in. Coins appear on one of the side lanes more often than not, meaning you'll need to tilt your device to get your runner to change lanes and grab the coins.

The in-game shop has many unlockables, including different characters, powerups, upgrades, and more. Because you keep the coins you collect on each run, you'll have the ability to make steady progress towards the unlocks you want, even if you're on a bad streak.

Finally, a handful of powerups appear occasionally throughout the world. These powerups will make your character run faster and control themselves, make you invincible (like a star in Mario) but allow you to retain control, give you a bunch of coins, or make other coin pickups more valuable. Picking up these powerful boons can change your run dramatically, so be sure to grab them when you see them.

These systems might seem simple - and they are - but Temple Run remains a frantic, fast-paced game that's easy to learn and difficult to master. Even experienced platform veterans will struggle to perfectly react in time to every obstacle. At the same time, new players will be able to pick up Temple Run incredibly quickly, enabling them to join in on the fun!