So I was just sorta kinda getting back to running when I discovered the Zombies, Run! app, which is pretty much the best excuse to run ever.
No really. The game puts you in the middle of the aftermath of the zombie apocalypse, giving you bits of second-person story in which you’re a runner for the town you’ve taken refuge in, and in which you need to … well, run to outpace the zombies, and to survive. Which is a reason for running that Actually Makes Sense. 🙂
In between bits of story, when you’re running from (or toward) whatever the story has told you to run from, songs play that get pulled from your playlist. Along the way, you gather supplies to help support the town, and you get to distribute them when your run is through.
If you run out of story, you get to hear bits from your town’s local radio station, which is playing whatever music it can find in this ruined world (that is, music from your playlist), alternating it with a sort of post-apocalyptic morning show goofiness. Good stuff–enough so that I let the radio station run long enough to run out of radio clips long before I got to the end of the main narrative.
But. I’ve realized I’m 14 episodes into the 23-ep game, which means that in the not-too-distant future, I’m going to run out of story, and will need something new to keep this whole business of indoor summer physical activity interesting. There’ll eventually be a Zombies, Run! season 2, but that’s not out yet.
Anyone know of any other games even remotely like this? They don’t even need to be running specific: just some sort of narrative or gameplay interlaced with some sort of fairly basic physical activity.
Meanwhile, there is, of course, a reasonably extensive Zombies, Run! TVTropes page. Of course there is.