Temple Run

Temple Run is one of those mobile games that practically defined an entire era of smartphone gaming. You play as an unfortunate treasure hunter who has just stolen a cursed idol and naturally, has a bunch of angry demon monkeys chasing him down. Your job? RUN. Swipe left and right to dodge obstacles, jump over gaps, slide beneath traps and collect as many coins as possible while navigating the winding paths of an ancient temple. The further you get, the faster things become, turning every run into a frantic test of reflexes. You can unlock different characters, purchase power ups, complete objectives and upgrade your abilities to squeeze out just a little more distance on your next attempt. Y'know, it's a simple formula but one that's incredibly addictive.

And, there are two projects that demake this game for retro consoles. First, there's a Game Boy Color demake that recreates the endless running experience with simple 8-bit visuals. Obviously, it has to make some compromises to fit the hardware and unfortunately, there's no sound, which's a pretty noticeable downside for a game that originally relied so heavily on its music and sound effects. Still, it gets the basic idea across and I'd take this over what we're about to discuss.

There's also a 3DS port of Temple Run too but… I'll be completely honest, it's AI slop. And I don't mean the kind of AI assisted recomp that carefully recreates the original gameplay while making clever use of the dual screens like the ones from EstebanPdN. That Temple Run port is a vibecoded clone from beginning to end. And look, if I'm going to share a game on here, AI assisted or not, the bare minimum is that it should meet an acceptable standard. I'm not expecting every game to be a masterpiece but I do expect some effort and a functional experience. And I'm pretty sure that by this point, you've already made your mind, so here's the GBC demake.