I’ve personally never been a fan of treadmills, as a result the idea of a endless runner seems counter-intuitive. Hell, if I’m honest the closest I get to a gym is Happy Hour drinking with a guy named James, which explains why I have so few fitness apps on either my Android or iOS handset.
Stampede Run
Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA), the maker of the myriad “Ville” and “With Friends” games along with others, released an updated version of its Running with Friends for iOS today. In addition to adding a single-player mode to the game that allows players to “run with the bulls” in Pamplona, Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) changed the name of the game from Running with Friends to Stampede Run. Which, end of the day, makes a tremendous amount of sense. For those that have ever run with the bulls, the last thing you would call them our your friends. Even your friends are your friends in Pamplona, just people in your way as a bull chases you down from behind.
For those unfamiliar, Stampede Run is not terrifically different from Temple Run or Subway Surfers outside of the setting. Each of the aforementioned games sees players endlessly bounding over obstacles by running, jumping, ducking, etc. The object is to, well, run, run, and run. In the newly released single player version, players are presented with a series of timed challenges.
Just as the Mario Brothers series, from god I’m old 30(?) years ago, players encounter bonusesand power-ups. In the case of Stampede Run the goal is to collect coins in order to “purchase” additional power-ups along the way.
New Features, Same Game
With today’s upgrade, players are able to play the game in its entirety offline. Once they are connected to the Internet the game automatically syncs their progress. Additionally, with the newest update players needn’t use Facebook Connect in order to access the game without waiting.
The ability to asynchronously challenge others in the game’s multiplayer mode remains with today’s update, as do Stampede Runs in-game chat and leaderboard functions. Today, the update was only made available for iOS and not Android. The iOS update is offered free of charge though you can purchase an ad-free upgrade for $0.99.
