Thanks to RPS for posting this great little flash gem by indie dev Adam Atomic. Canabalt is a fast-paced game featuring a free-runner speeding his way over rooftops. The only control is a single button to make him jump over various obstacles and across gaps. He progressively picks up more and more speed, so there rises a necessity every now and then to deliberately run into some of the non-fatal debris in order to slow him down. It’s the windows that get me every time, though.

The game is presented in an extremely short and wide aspect ratio, giving more time to see the route ahead but less warning for falling objects. People with very large monitor resolutions can play the even wider HD version of the game. The city depicted in the layers of parallax-scrolling background is futuristic and dystopian: ships fly past and huge robots with searchlights make their way across the industrial landscape. The music is suitably thumping with synths and beats, with quieter, atmospheric interludes.