Lava Leap

Lava Leap is a one-tap runner set on a volcano that is very much awake. Marsh sprints to the right on his own, and the only thing you decide is when to leave the ground. A short tap is a hop, a held tap is a full arc, and a second tap in the air is a puff-powered double jump that saves the leaps you misjudged. Swipe down, or press S, and Marsh drops like a stone: that is how you punch through a crumbling bridge to the ledge below, and how you flatten a boulder rolling your way.

The run is built out of more than forty hand-made pieces of volcano — basalt pillars, bridges that give way under your feet, bouncy mushrooms, rising swells of lava, steam vents that fire you up to the high road, swinging chains and lava jets — shuffled into a fresh course every time and gently sped up the further you get. Every piece is authored so there is always a line through it at every speed, so a run that ends is a run you can honestly blame on yourself. Sprinkles are scattered along the tempting route rather than the safe one, and four crates change the rules for a while: a cool shield that shrugs off one dip in the lava, spring boots, a sprinkle magnet and a rocket that lets you fly straight over the next chasm.

The real pressure is the heat. Run low, near the lava, and Marsh browns from the feet up — you can watch it climb his body — and a fully toasted marshmallow is the end of the run. The icy cool pads dotted along the course wind that meter back down, so the high road and the low road are a constant trade between sprinkles and staying edible. Get far enough and three friends unlock and join the cast: a s'more at 1 000 m, a slice of toast at 3 000 m and a cookie at 6 000 m. Your best distance is kept in your browser, and the whole thing plays with one thumb on a phone or with the space bar on a desktop.