Browser and Flash games tend to be simple yet addictive games. They’re not high-concept games with storyline like The Last of Us or Assassin’s Creed. They’re not graphics-intensive 3D games like the Call of Duty type of FPS shooters or 2.5D fighting games like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tekken, or King of Fighters. They’re instead something like the “Run” franchise that has two sequels now. Play run 2 and run 3 online. You can also play the original Run for good measure, which still holds up to this day a la Tetris. This game is an Endless Running Game where you’re auto scrolled to move forward and your task is to avoid obstacles and get to the end (or the checkpoint) before it loops to a new stage altogether endlessly.

The Endless Running Game Genre

• What “Run” Brings to the Table: The Run Trilogy is a mix between the 3D Canabalt and the old NES game 3D World Runner. Your POV is behind a guy you control that’s supposed to run and jump through 3D obstacles. The first Run game however makes the task of jumping and evading pits on a simple square screen or virtual hallway more compelling by adding the option to run at “walls”, turning them into the floor (and the previous floor the new wall and vice-versa) to make your path to the end easier.

• What the First Sequel Bring to the Table: Run is a great game with a distinctive looping EDM-like soundtrack that pushes you to “keep running”, even though your avatar in the game is a 2D drawing of a blob with stubs for feet and arms. With Run 2, instead of a constricted hallway with pits, you instead run on seeming Tetris blocks and whatnot. You also get an updated version of the Run theme plus more complex tracks as well as the option to slide. You still end up with an indeterminate blob running though.

• What the Second Sequel Brings to the Table: Run 3 is the Super Mario 3 of the franchise. While Run set the precedent and Run 2 tried out new gimmicks, Run 3 serves as the best of both worlds of the first two installments. It still has the same alien-like blob with antennae as the protagonist or player representative, but it returns to the tube-like tracks of Run. However, it also mixes things up with blocks or panels that float outward into space and better control on the jump. Most importantly, it has the most impressive of soundtracks. There also isn’t any stops or pauses per stage completion.

• The Impressive Run Trilogy OST: The original soundtrack of Run, even though it’s just one track, is a beautiful haunting track that you can listen to over and over again (like in the case of Cabalt and its iconic theme). The theme also transforms the more you listen to it (since it’s supposed to play all throughout the first game you might as well hear a more varied type of music before it loops. Run 2 ups the ante by adding more tracks and a remix of the original. Run 3 really runs with the ball and adds whole new themes per 10 levels or so. As the courses get harder, a new theme is presented, giving the new levels more character.