Subway Surfers gives Temple Run a run for its money on iOS

While cloning in the world of mobile and Facebook games is definitely nothing new, it's rare that a "clone" or "copy" can match the quality standards of those games that inspired them, but in the case of Subway Surfers, this is one iOS game that is definitely giving Temple Run a run for its money.

You'll play Subway Surfers predominantly as a young graffiti artist, running from a police officer on crowded railroad tracks after tagging a train car. Like in Temple Run, your goal is to run away from the screen for the longest amount of time as possible, collecting coins and earning points along the way. Also like in Temple Run, you'll find power-ups scattered around the environment, like one that doubles your score for some time, another than makes you run faster, and even a magnet that forces all coins (regardless of their location) to fly into your character.

There are a few major differences between Subway Surfers and Temple Run (aside from their graphical themes, that is), and many of these arguably make Subway Surfers the more enjoyable experience. For one, Temple Run relies on tilt controls to move your character to the edges of a single track to collect coins, avoid gaps, etc. In Subway Surfers, you'll swipe left and right on the screen to avoid oncoming trains and obstacles, no titling required. Furthermore, Temple Run often makes you turn 90 degree corners left and right, limiting how much you can really plan ahead in order to survive. Subway Surfers doesn't contain this element, instead allowing you to move between three tracks and see fairly far ahead of you on a semi-curved path.

As you play, Subway Surfers challenges you to complete sets of three missions at a time, such as collecting a certain number of coins or running a specific length, and you can collect tokens along the way that allow you to unlock one of four additional characters with which to play. There are some hitching problems when completing missions that can cause the game to freeze for a short instance as the game pops up a notification that you've completed one, and this can sometimes cause you to fail entirely as you run into an obstacle, and the overall loading time to get into the action (the first time you load the app during each session) is also fairly long.

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All of that being said, this is one case where the clone might actually outdo the game that inspired it, as the removal of tilt controls and sharp turns makes Subway Surfers a less stressful and arguably more entertaining experience. This isn't to say that Temple Run is a bad game, as both are definitely a lot of fun to play. With Subway Surfers being free to download though, why not try it out for yourself to see which one you like more?

Click here to download Subway Surfers on iOS --->

Have you tried both Subway Surfers and Temple Run on your iPhone or iPad? Which game do you like more? Sound off in the comments.