Subway Surfers

Subway Surfers is an "endless running" mobile game co-developed by Kiloo, a private company based in Denmark and SYBO Games. The game displays colourful, whimsical design and a fast pace. It is available on Android, iOS and Windows Phone platforms. Players of the game take the role of youthful hooligans who, caught in the act of applying graffiti to a metro railway site, take off down the tracks to escape the inspector. As the hooligan avatars run they grab gold coins out of the air while simultaneously dodging collisions with railway cars and other objects.

Subway Surfers launched in May 2012 with updates based on seasonal holidays. Since January 2013 updates have been based on a "World Tour" theme that places game action in a new city released monthly. Cities featured included New York City, Rio de Janeiro, Sydney, Rome, Tokyo, Miami, Paris, Beijing, Moscow, New Orleans, London, Mumbai, and Miami for a second time.

On 6 January 2014, developer Kiloo announced that "World Tour: Mumbai" (v1.17) which was released after "World Tour: London", will not be released on Windows Phone 8-powered devices. After that, "World Tour: Miami" (v1.18), which has been released for second time on 23 January 2014, was made available for Windows Phone 8-powered devices.

Gameplay
The object of the game is to run one's hooligan character as far as possible through an endless game world by avoiding randomly generated obstacles that require the player to either jump (slide finger forward), duck (slide finger backwards) and/or dodge the oncoming trains (slide finger laterally) in a precise manner with the help of occasional power-ups. Gameplay takes place in graphical 3-D perspective. Player characters collect coins as they run; occasionally they surf on hoverboards, jump over or roll under objects, soar over the train tracks, and even run along overhead wires. Special missions reward players with bonuses for accomplishing precise tasks. Upon a wipeout, characters occasionally appear to smash into the screen. This fourth wall gag has predecessors in Crash Bandicoot and the 1999 Pepsiman videogame on PlayStation.

Since January 2013 the game's monthly update features a new city as a setting. The differences are mainly graphic, as the gameplay remains much the same. Weekly city-themed "treasure hunts" earn special bonuses. Each new city installment introduces a new character who is native to the locale, and a new hoverboard bearing a design suggestive of the local culture. Both items are made available for in-game "purchase" with harvested gold coins for only a limited time, but they remain as permanent items in the player's collection. The game makes whimsical use of tourist stereotypes. The Paris version, for example, introduced a street mime character, a tricolour hoverboard based on the French flag, and souvenir hunts for miniature Eiffel towers.

As with many free tablet/mobile games, Subway Surfers is "optionally free by default". Players can advance unhindered in the game without making online payments of real money. Online purchases enable interested users to customize the experience more easily and build reserves of virtual currency. Two forms of virtual currency are used for in-game purchases: gold coins (abundant) and blue keys (scarce).

Release history

 * Subway Surfers Original: (May - October 2012)
 * Subway Surfers Special: Halloween (November 2012)
 * Subway Surfers Special: Christmas (December 2012)
 * Subway Surfers World Tour: New York City (January 2013)
 * Subway Surfers World Tour: Rio de Janeiro (February 2013)
 * Subway Surfers World Tour: Rome (March 2013)
 * Subway Surfers World Tour: Sydney (April 2013)
 * Subway Surfers World Tour: Tokyo (May 2013)
 * Subway Surfers World Tour: Miami (June 2013)
 * Subway Surfers World Tour: Paris (July 2013)
 * Subway Surfers World Tour: Beijing (August 2013)
 * Subway Surfers World Tour: Moscow (September 2013)
 * Subway Surfers World Tour: New Orleans: Halloween Special (October 2013)
 * Subway Surfers World Tour: London: Christmas Special (November and December 2013)
 * Subway Surfers World Tour: Mumbai (January 2014)
 * Subway Surfers World Tour: Miami (January 23, 2014, for a second time)
 * Subway Surfers World Tour: Boston (February 2014)
 * Subway Surfers World Tour: Jaipur (February 2014)

New update will be available March 29, 2014

Player characters
For use as avatars Subway Surfers offers regular characters (available for acquisition at any time) and special characters (available only for a limited time). All characters are rendered in vector graphics as stylized cartoons with large heads and diminutive bodies. The miscreants appear to range in age from pre-teen through teen years, though their fashions suggest a variety of time periods.

A number of youthful interests find representation in Subway Surfers characters. These include: fads and fashions such as cosplay, breakdance, funk, steampunk, Goth and heavy metal; sports such as skateboarding, surfing, track, basketball and world football; and cultural traditions such as street theater, carnival costume and samba, folk dance and mime. A Beijing acrobat wears makeup depicting Monkey from Journey to the West. The clothes of a street performer in New Orleans recall Charles Dickens's Artful Dodger.

Jake is the default Subway Surfers character and the face of the franchise. Jake appears in game icons and greets newcomers. All other characters must be "unlocked". This is done in either of two ways. Some characters are unlocked via the collection of character attributes in the course of the game. An attribute may be an article of clothing (such as a hat) or a favored prop (such as a boom box). Other characters may be unlocked at any time through payment of virtual currency. All special characters are unlocked in this way, as are additional outfits for some of the more widely used characters.

The Inspector, accompanied by his dog, chase the characters on screen. While he's always the same character, his uniform changes along with the location. During the New Orleans version, the inspector was replaced by Frankenstein's monster with a skeleton dog, and during the London version he was dressed as Santa Claus.