Believe it or not, undead skeletons are afraid of ghosts. Bones Wellington discovers this, much to his dismay, when a couple of white apparitions pop up in his stately retro home. Time for a Mansion Run (out now, $0.99).
As Bones flees from the ghosts, you’ve got to help him avoid jiggly possessed furniture, from couches and bookshelves to pipe organs and grandfather clocks. The only way around these obstacles is to either jump one floor up or down (by swiping in the same direction). While you’re at it, you can collect glowing bones, which you can use later to swap for power-ups at the shop. And if you’re lucky enough to find the red stairway leading up to the attic or the entrance to the basement, you can run unencumbered and grab an entire row of bones. Be careful though of falling inadvertently through holes between floors.
Your finger coordination skills will be put to the ultimate test when you’re challenged with a straight wall of furniture, called a quick time event. Four directional arrows will appear on the screen all at once. You’ll have to be prompt about swiping in the appropriate order. If you succeed, the furniture will break. During the regular run, you can also crack furniture when colliding into them, but only for a maximum of three times; on the fourth collision, Bones Wellington will crumble.
If you’re tired of Bones, you can unlock another two characters to play with: Dr. Cavor and Hook Champ. The shop and its power-ups are, however, disappointing. You can buy special abilities with 100 bones, but what power-up you get is entirely random. Currently, there are three. Invincibility, slow-mo, and ghost repel (activated through swiping right). The first two seem more useful than the third, since it’s eventually the furniture that gets you, not the ghosts.
iFanzine Verdict: Mansion Run is an enjoyable retro-styled endless runner that may be a little too simple to be addictively endearing. It doesn’t help that the power-ups are random and limited. With $0.99 you can buy a bone doubler or 1000 bones, but that just means getting the same few power-ups faster, and not everyone is a fan of IAP. Those who love endless runners and a retro feel may still get some good fun out of this though.