Imangi Studios has been around the App Store for a long time. They’ve produced a bunch of good games, but this is their greatest yet.

Temple Run ($0.99)

Amongst the puzzles and high concept console like action adventure games are arcade and casual games. Temple Run is the most addicting game we’ve ran into in a long god dang time. It takes a LOT for a new iPhone game to stay on my dock, and this one definitely will!

Presentation

You control a Indiana Jones-like character running away from the guardians of the idol you just stole. The camera is always behind the character, since you’re always moving forward. It being Temple Run after all, the environment is set in a temple / jungle, and fit in seamlessly as they switch between the two.

Although the game sticks only to the jungle, in the end it’s for the better because it helps your focus. The game has no native iPad support, but it has retina graphics, and if you really want to you can run it at x2 mode on iPad.

Controls

Unlike other endless runner games like Canabalt, Temple Run implements both tilting and swiping, but the controls work just as well as a single tap. Tilting your iPhone steers your Indiana Jones-ish character left or right. The rest of the controls are handled with logic swipes, like swiping left or right to move in that direction, down to slide, and up to jump. The controls are easy to grasp and work great for when you need to make those split-second moves later on in the game.

Gameplay

The game is an endless runner game. Your character, who is trying to make his way out of the temple he just stole an idol from, is running away from the guardians of it, as well as hopping around and sliding as obstacles go his way. Along the way there are coins you can pick up. The game uses these coins as an in-game currency to buy powerups and upgrades. You can buy resurrection wings, which, as you imagine, resurrect you if you die. You can use these by just double tapping anywhere on the screen.

The rest of the upgrades are for the games powerups. The game has three kinds of powerups: invisibility, bonus coins, or coin magnets. Using the coins you can upgrade these powerups to last longer. All of this, packed in with Game Center leaderboards, add up for a seriously addictive, polished endless runner game.

Conclusion

There’s plenty of other endless runner games out there on the AppStore, but believe me when I say, Temple Run is one of the better endless runner games I’ve played on the AppStore, and since the night it was released I haven’t been able to put it down.

Honestly, at the price it’s a steal, you have to try this game. And when you do, good luck beating my high score guys.