By Malikbek (Own work) [CC BY 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
In this post I’m going to be talking about a mobile game which actually isn’t that old, but if you asked almost anyone (especially a kid) they would call it borderline ancient. You already know what game it is thanks to the title, but I’m going to write it down again for the sake of continuity; the game I’m talking about is Temple Run.
For those of you who don’t know what temple run is (or for some reason can’t remember) I’ll give a quick explanation. Temple Run is an endless 3D running game published in 2011 by Imangi Studio. It was originally released for iOS devices, but was later ported to Android and Windows phones. In the game you are an archaeologist who went to find a treasure in a temple in the jungle. What you didn’t know is that the temple is inhabited by demonic monkeys who want to eat you, so now you have to run for your life or you’ll end up being breakfast for a family of demonic monkeys. Yeah, pretty common story for a game.
As I said before, the game is an endless 3D runner; the object of the game is to keep yourself alive and running for as long as possible. You need to go over and under obstacles, jump over ledges and gaps, turn left and right, etc. If you hit too many obstacles, the monkeys catch you and you die; if you fall off a ledge or into a gap you die. While you’re running you collect coins which you can then use to upgrade your character and buy power ups in the game so that you can survive and run for longer.
I remember it being a phenomenon when it first came out. I would go anywhere, on the bus, on the train, at college, and there were people playing this game on their phone. They even made spin offs of the game like Temple Run: Brave and Temple Run: Oz. My first time playing the game was actually the Brave spin off.
So why do I even mention this old, border line ancient game? Well, I recently came across this video on YouTube that reminded me of it.
And after watching it I thought to myself, “It’s been a long time since I played that game. I should play it again.” After that I wasted a good half an hour playing that game, I would have played longer but I forgot to charge my phone and my battery died; after that I realised I was late for an appointment and I couldn’t call to tell them I would be late because my phone was dead. That didn’t actually happen but you have to admit it would be a hilarious story to tell your grandkids!
One of the reasons why I think Temple run is good against stress is because you really need to put all your concentration into the game if you want to keep your guy alive and running, and it does a good job at absorbing all your concentration by itself, you don’t have to force it.
Anyway this was just me ranting about another game which is a fun time waster and a nice way to distract yourself and relieve some of that stress. Go ahead and try it out, see how long you can keep the archaeologist alive.
Alternative Yoga 