When I’m riding on the New York City subway, I’m almost always playing a game on my Steam Deck or Nintendo Switch. I still haven’t gotten over the novel appeal of getting to take a complicated, graphically intense game like Elden Ring on the go. I’m spoiled, but sometimes I can’t help but glimpse at the grass on the other side. Sometimes I’ll notice a fellow commuter playing a simple mobile game like Subway Surfers.
In that moment, I’m torn in two. One part of me feels thrilled that portable gaming is no longer restrained to brainless experiences like that. Another part of me, though, wishes I was playing that game instead.
While I’ve long avoided — and perhaps even looked down on — the infinite runner genre, I’ve finally given into its mystical appeal with Temple Run: Legends. Apple Arcade’s latest exclusive shakes the mobile classic up with bite-sized platforming levels in addition to its infinite play mode. It’s a perfect compromise for those who see the appeal of a series like Temple Run, but need some firmer goals and objectives. That’s helping me finally understand the satisfying appeal of a popular genre, even if it isn’t changing my world.
Temple Run: Legends needs little introduction. Players control an explorer who runs past obstacles and collects coins. They can swipe left and right to move them between lanes, swipe down to slide under low obstacles, or swipe up to jump. That’s all you need to know. Is there a story told throughout its 500 short levels? I guess so. I could not tell you what it is and I’m over 150 levels deep.
That’s because games like Temple Run aren’t there to light up your brain; they are time machines. In my first session with it, I take it on the subway. Legends feels almost perfectly engineered for that experience. A level lasts almost exactly one subway stop, like it was timed for that purpose. My trip into Manhattan flies by in an instant, each level ticking down how many stops I have left. All of my energy goes to my thumb as it lazily swipes through simple levels. I get a steady stream of dopamine when I run through a row of glittering coins. I finally understand what my fellow commuters have been doing all these years; it’s like novacaine.
Legends does add just a bit more brainpower to the usual formula. It has several unlockable characters, each of which has two special abilities. One can magnetize coins to them, while another can run over water. Each ability can be upgraded a few times with the coins I collect, adding a simple progression hook. Daily rewards, challenge levels, and a classic infinite mode round out a comfortable package that’s an obvious download for Apple Arcade subscribers.
Is it good? Whoa there buddy, don’t put words in my mouth! Infinite runners are inherently repetitive games, by design, and Legends only adds to that problem by splitting itself up into 500 similar levels. There are varying gimmicks here and there, like annoying underwater levels that have me moving in all directions, but each one is structurally identical. Some character abilities give players the power to route through them in different ways, but that hardly changes the game feel. If you try to sit down with Legends and dedicate your full attention to it, as you would a normal game, you’ll undoubtedly find it boring.
But that’s not how it’s meant to be played. It’s a fidget toy that I flick at while I’m doing something else, like bingeing a TV show I’ve watched countless times. It’s perhaps why games like Subway Surfers have become synonymous with TikTok videos that cram gameplay footage in next to another clip. There’s an undeniable smooth brain appeal that I can more easily understand in a level-based spin on the genre that better plays to the hooks I generally latch on to in games.
I suppose all of this is a long, overly complicated way of saying that Temple Run: Legends is a perfectly fine way to keep your twitchy hands occupied. It’s a black hole that sucks in all thoughts and feelings and spits out carefree satisfaction. Sometimes that’s all you really want.
Temple Run: Legends is now available via Apple Arcade.
