How to play
SUBWAY RUN is an endless runner through a train yard at sunset, painted in a graffiti cel-shaded style with spray-paint tags and pieces on every wall and train. Your runner sprints forward on their own across three lanes, and you dodge whatever is in the way.
Switch lanes with Left and Right (or A and D). Jump with Up, W or Space, and roll with Down or S; rolling in the air makes you drop fast. M mutes. On a phone, swipe left, right, up or down, or tap to jump.
Hit anything head-on, whether a train, a hurdle, a bar or a concrete block, and you are BUSTED. Clip one with the edge of your body and you stumble instead: you are knocked back into the lane you came from and the screen flashes orange. A second stumble within 3.5 seconds ends the run. When a run ends, the coins you picked up go into your bank.
Tips and strategy
- Read the obstacle. Low hurdles need a jump, high bars need a roll, and concrete blocks need a lane change. Trains need a lane change too, unless a ramp leads up onto them.
- Listen for the horn. After the first couple of hundred metres, some trains drive towards you and sound their horn. They come at you much faster than parked trains, so move early.
- Take the high road. Ramps lead up onto the train roofs. Some stretches are three trains wide with a line of coins along every roof, and there is less to dodge up there. A ramp always has a trail of coins leading up it.
- Roll to land early. Rolling in mid-air slams you down fast. It is the quickest way to get under a high bar you jumped too early for.
- Play safe after a stumble. While your runner is blinking, any second stumble ends the run. Stay in a clear lane until it stops.
- Save up for one power-up first. Upgrades get much dearer each level, so pick the power-up you like best and level it up before the others.
- Do the crew tags. Each rank has three missions. Clearing all three ranks you up and adds one to your score multiplier for every run after.
What's in it
An endless yard of parked trains, moving trains, low hurdles, high bars, concrete blocks and rooftop runs. Your speed climbs steadily for the first couple of kilometres, then holds at more than twice the speed you started at.
Three spray-can power-ups lie on the tracks:
- MAGNET (red) pulls in nearby coins.
- SPRING KICKS (green) make every jump much higher, high enough to land on top of a train.
- 2X SCORE (yellow) doubles the points you earn for distance.
Each one lasts 8 seconds to begin with. The shop on the menu and the BUSTED screen spends your banked coins on six upgrade levels for each power-up. Each level adds 2.5 seconds, up to 23 seconds at the top level. The levels cost 150, 600, 1,350, 2,400, 3,750 and 5,400 coins.
Crew tags are drawn from six kinds of mission: grab a number of coins in one run, jump a number of times, roll a number of times, reach a score, grab power-ups, or run a distance on train roofs. The targets grow with every rank. The music is a boom-bap beat made in the browser.
Behind the game
Most of the score comes from distance: points tick up as you run, multiplied by your crew rank, and doubled while 2X SCORE is active. Every coin is also worth 5 points times your rank. That is why ranking up matters so much. At rank 3, every metre and every coin is worth three times what it was at rank 1.
The yard is built row by row as you run, and the game makes sure every row has at least one lane you can get through. So there is always a way out, even when it does not look like it. Moving trains are planned a few rows ahead, with clear track in front of them, so you have room to see them coming. Power-ups turn up a little more often at each rank.
Hits are judged by how centred you are. Meet an obstacle square-on and the run is over. Catch it with your shoulder while you change lanes and it only costs you a stumble. That is what makes late lane changes risky but survivable.
Questions
Do I need an account?
No. Your best score, banked coins, upgrades, rank and mission progress are saved in your browser.
Can I play on a phone?
Yes. Swipe left or right to change lanes, up to jump and down to roll, or just tap to jump. It plays upright.
Do the coins I collect keep after I crash?
Yes. Every coin you picked up goes into your bank at the end of the run, crash or not.
What does my multiplier mean?
The number next to your score is your crew rank, doubled while 2X SCORE is active. Rank 1 is x1, and each rank-up adds one.
Is it violent?
No. A crash just shows the BUSTED card.
Does it flash?
Yes. The screen flashes red on a crash, orange on a stumble and white when you grab a power-up.