Top 10 best games to play while waiting for Temple Run on Android

As the pace of modern life becomes more and more sedentary (let's face it: you're probably all reading this while sitting somewhere warm and comfy), the concept of actual physical running is fast becoming as passe as cooking wholesome meals and teaching children manners.

Instead, we like virtual people to do our running for us, and if that also happens to involve jumping over huge gaps and blasting anything that can be blasted, well, that's even better - think how fit they'll be.

That's why we love endless-running games, and that's why Pocket Gamer loves Temple Run on iOS. Yet, harrowingly, there's no Android version yet - though that hasn't stopped those dastardly cloners from pretending it has.

So, while we wait in our comfy armchairs for an official port to arrive on March 27th, here are the best endless-runners currently available on the green robot side of the app pond. In other words: put those running shoes away, cancel the gym membership, and get downloading.

The designer of this psychedelic game has obviously not been paying close attention to any nature documentaries lately. Not once have we heard David Attenborough's soothing tones explain that whales can fly providing they stick to a rainbow trail in the sky, but that's exactly what Willow has to do to survive in this weirdly wonderful title.

The aim is to keep Willow airborne for as long as possible, collecting coloured bubbles along the way. You simply hold the screen to make Willow soar upwards and release to dive, making sure not to fall beneath the clouds - else, you will be swallowed by sinister squid (no, really).

Like those horrifying nightmares in which you're being hunted down by an unseen beast and, too scared to look back, you can only run until either the horror gets you or you wake up screaming, Dead Runner is all sweetness and roses.

Best played with headphones on, the lights off, and all the doors and windows open to let the monsters in, Distinctive Wireless's game sets up a spooky atmosphere (misty, near-monochrome graphics, and haunting synth sounds) and asks you to keep running without crashing into the many, many trees blocking your way.

An early showcase for the graphical prowess of the Unity engine on Android, Stellar Escape's super-smooth animation brings to mind the iOS dazzle of Mirror's Edge.

As well as looking sharp, the game is one of the tougher entries in the endless-running category. This is mostly due to the fact you need to get to grips with five different control buttons - rather than the single jump pioneered by Canabalt - each mapped to a specific move (roll, dive, jump, and so on).

It feels a little like Simon Says at times, as each of the five buttons only works with one obstacle type, but Stellar Escape is still a futuristic-looking time hogger.

A postmodern game poking fun at gaming's most cliched conventions that deliberately plays out much like a generic - somewhat - cliched game is a bit of a strain on the grey matter.

So, just turn off that overpowered mind and blast away at a few aliens, zombies, and Nazis like you've been doing for decades - you'll feel better. Plus, the inclusion of actual missions in One Epic Game, rather than one endless 2D stage, and weapons power-ups - from machine guns to a Doom-style BFG - also injects some welcome explosive variety into proceedings.

A benchmark in the endless-running genre, Solipskier's original Flash incarnation was so popular back in 2010 that we shudder to think how many office-based man-hours were lost to its hyper-addictive gameplay.

Using your finger, you draw slopes on-screen to help your headphone-wearing skier race through gates, perform suitable 'radical' tricks, and not crash horribly. Put simply, it's one of the best games on the Google Play Store for killing a few minutes (or, if you're not careful, hours).

Adult Swim's cult classic (it dates back nearly two years now) remains a beguiling beast blessed with the kind of hypnotic charm that can only come from the marriage of rainbow-powered unicorn and a looping Erasure soundtrack.

Leaping majestically will only get you so far, however, as mastering the titular creature's Dash attack to crash through obstacles is the only way to prevent your magical ride from ending up in a, literally, bloody heap. Still, one more go won't hurt - it's not like unicorns are rare these days.

In the run-up to Serious Sam 3: BFE (a mental, full-on shooter sequel that's exhilarating and exhausting), Lame Castle developer Be-Rad Entertainment got to use the Serious Sam licence to create an endless-runner in the series's crazy universe.

The results, unsurprisingly, play out a lot like Lame Castle, but this time you step into the shoes of one of Sam's longest-standing foes - the screaming headless kamikaze man with bombs for hands that explode when they get close enough to our hero.

Watch out for the Rage meter, though, as too many dashes can make him explode too early, and then it's back to the restart screen for you.

Taking the bold step of removing jumping from the endless-running formula, Miniclip decided that the only way for you to keep Gravity Guy alive is to break one of Newton's unbreakable laws.

Perpetually just one step ahead of his robotic pursuers, the hero needs to flip gravity to avoid any obstacles that could slow him down.

The action is frantic enough already, but the game also throws in levels where the speed ramps up faster than the human brain can keep up with, leading to difficulty spikes that can only be overcome by rote learning levels.

One of the first Android exclusives that really captured our imagination (and spare time), HyperBee's 3D title is a masterclass in risk vs reward.

With ever-increasing pace, you rocket through a neon-tinged, wireframe racetrack dodging primary-coloured obstacles that can stop you in your tracks.

Hypnotic and maddeningly hard to put down, Speedx 3D is a rocket-paced game that's still dazzling nearly two years after it first raced onto Android.

Its familiar settings - jungle, mine, (groan) ice - might veer into done-to-death territory, but Grim Joggers has one unique trick tucked into the pocket of its shorts.

Instead of keeping one hero alive, you've got a whole gaggle of joggers to watch over. This sounds daunting on paper, yet the clever mechanics mean you're only really controlling the front-runner.

You'll lose a few stragglers at the back of the pack with every jump, but you only have to really worry when you get down to one.