They say not to judge a book by its cover. Well, that is pretty true. But it also applies to mobile games. Usually from the little thumbnail you can tell what kind of game it’ll be and even if it’s going to be any good. Other times, mobile games are a bit more surprising. Enter Fun Run for iOS. When I first downloaded Fun Run I thought “Oh boy, this will just be another run-of-the-mill platforming game or endless runner that will be full of generic cuddly creatures.” Well, I was kind of right. Let me explain. In review form.

The Basics

As the name implies, Fun Run is a racing game. You play online with other racers to finish first, playing as cute, cuddly creatures. Pretty much sounds like you’d think it would be, right? Well, the more I played, the more I realized something: this game is actually pretty violent. I saw the screen covered in blood, the cuddly creatures struck by lightning, and heads rolling around. Not exactly the kid-friendly little app I expected.

The Gameplay

Outside of the strange amount of violence (which I will continue to be disturbed by later) let’s talk about the actual gameplay. The game actually plays kind of like a 2D version of Mario Kart. You collect items to attack other racers or speed up. Do you know what wasn’t in Mario Kart though? Blood and guts. Sorry, I’ll stop talking about it. Until the next section at least.

Is Is Fun?

Like I said, Fun Run took some of the basic aspects of Mario Kart and put them in a 2D world. Which I admit is actually a pretty interesting concept. It plays decently well, but lacks much personality. The characters look like generic clip art, and the levels lack much environmentally. I wonder if that’s why they threw in that violence. They thought maybe it would spice things up a bit. Well, then, job well done, makers of Fun Run.

The Bottom Line

Fun Run is a decently fun game with some problems and overall strangeness. The characters and environments lack much life, and the obstacles can be a little random at times. The bloody parts of the game just came off as weird, especially since nothing else in this game is remotely adult. Maybe if it was called “XTREME Fun Run 18+ Up To The XTREME”, but not when it's just called Fun Run.