Temple Run (2011) Review

🏃‍♂️ Swipe, Jump, Die, Repeat


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🎥 Trailers

Let’s start with showing y’all the trailers, shall we?

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📖 Non-Spoiler Rundown

You’ve stolen a cursed idol. Now, giant demon monkeys want you dead. The game is endless running—turns, jumps, slides, and inevitable death. The longer you last, the faster and harder it gets.


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🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Character Breakdown

Guy Dangerous – Default explorer, Indy knockoff.

Scarlett Fox – The rogue thief skin, a fan-favorite.

Barry Bones, Karma Lee, Montana Smith, Francisco Montoya, Zack Wonder – Other cosmetic unlocks. No special abilities yet (that came later in Temple Run 2).

🎮 Gameplay

The Temple Run series at its core is about one thing: survival through reflexes. The gameplay loop is deceptively simple—swipe left or right to turn, swipe up to jump, swipe down to slide, and tilt your device to grab coins. That’s it. And yet, this simplicity is what made the series so endlessly addictive.

The beauty of Temple Run lies in its escalation. The game lures you in with a leisurely jog through ruined temples, but within minutes, you’re in a full-blown panic sprint, barely clinging to survival as obstacles come faster and faster. Every run is unwinnable—you will eventually mess up—but the high score system keeps you coming back with that “just one more run” mentality.

Both the original game and its sequel thrive on this formula. The difference is in how the challenge escalates:

Temple Run (2011): Straightforward, flat jungle ruins, relying on speed increase to crank the difficulty.

Temple Run 2 (2013): Same foundation, but expanded with zip lines, mine carts, waterfalls, sharper turns, and a more dynamic environment that made runs feel fresh and alive.


At their heart, both games are arcade-style reflex tests that prey on human stubbornness. You don’t play to “win”—you play to see how far you can go before face-planting into a tree root or getting chomped by a monkey.



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⏱️ Pacing & Flow

Fast, unforgiving, and endlessly addictive. Runs could be seconds or stretch into minutes if you were skilled. The perfect “just one more run” loop.


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✅ Pros

Simple, intuitive swipe controls.

Addictive arcade gameplay.

Iconic jungle ruins aesthetic.

Spawned the entire endless runner genre.


❌ Cons

No story at all.

Characters were purely cosmetic.

Visual repetition set in quickly.



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💭 Final Thoughts

Temple Run (2011) defined mobile gaming in its era. It wasn’t about story—it was pure adrenaline, like Pac-Man in your pocket. Even now, it’s a nostalgic classic, but you’ll never win.

⭐ Rating: 8.5/10


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⚠️ Spoilers (Sort of)

There’s no ending. You always die. Whether it’s tripping over a tree root, missing a corner, or getting monkey-chomped—the cursed idol always wins.