On The Run is coming soon – very soon in fact, hitting iOS, Android and Windows Phone devices on August 27! A unique mixture of old-school arcade racer and endless runner, On The Run is unlike anything else you’ve played before. We thought it would be interesting to look more at some of the games that influenced On The Run, highlighting some older titles that younger players might not be familiar with!
ARCADE RACERS
Back in the day, we had something called an “arcade”, full of huge videogame machines that you had to put coins in to play! Crazy, we know, but they were very popular at the time! We’re joking of course – you’ll all know what arcades are, but they were far more popular during the 80s and early 90s. One of the most popular genres of arcade games were the racing games, with players sitting down in cabinets that resembled the driving seats of a car, complete with steering wheel and pedals to accelerate and brake.
One of the most popular and influential arcade racers was Out Run, a 1986 release from Sega. Out Run popularised many of the genre tropes that became common in subsequent games, and you can still see today in On The Run. Racing from checkpoint to checkpoint before time runs out, the mechanic that On The Run revolves around, is well-known today thanks to Out Run. Blasting through sunny, seaside locales with rock music blaring, performing impossible powerslides, dodging other cars and doing it all as quickly as possible – in many ways, On The Run is a spiritual successor to Out Run, and owes more to it than any other game.
Another hugely influential arcade racer was another Sega game, 1994’s Daytona USA. Players this time had to not only race against the clock but other cars as well, a tough challenge. With incredible (for the time) 3D graphics and a silky-smooth 60fps frame-rate, Daytona marked a step forward for the genre from a technological standpoint, taking the ideas that Out Run made popular and bringing them into a new generation. It also had an incredible soundtrack. Case in point:
ENDLESS RUNNERS
The other half of On The Run’s genetics comes from Endless Runners, a much newer genre that has nonetheless taken the world by storm in a short amount of time. Anyone who plays mobile games will know what endless runners are, the genre exploding in popularity in the last few years. You all know the basics: your character will run automatically, and you have to avoid obstacles for as long as you can to set a new high score. Simple!
The game widely accepted as inventing the genre is 2009’s Canabalt, a simple side scroller that only had one button, making your unnamed character jump as he flees from… something. It’s never made clear exactly what is going on, but that doesn’t matter. The moody music, retro-inspired graphics and simple gameplay made Canabalt a huge hit that spawned waves of imitators.
It took a couple of years for another game to reach the same level of popularity, but 2011’s Temple Run was an enormous hit that needs no introduction. Taking the core concepts of Canabalt and working them into a 3D space, Temple Run was a worldwide phenomenon that topped charts across the globe for months, eventually spawning a similarly popular sequel. 3D runners like Temple Run and Miniclip’s own Rail Rush helped inspire the overall structure of On The Run, with different unlocks, goals to achieve each time and a multiplayer element that involved beating your friends’ scores.
On The Run is coming August 27 on iOS, Android and Windows Phone devices! Check out the official Facebook page for all the latest info! Enjoy On The Run!