Okay, all weird parody aside, 10 Second Run is a decent bang for your double-buck. Your best bet is to start right into the Trial mode, where fifty different levels are arrayed for you. Each of them require you to leap and bound with great ability to a goalpoint at the end of each level... within 10 seconds. That's right. The first bunch of levels are pretty simplistic and can be done on the first try, but once you get into the later levels (and especially the dastardly final ten), they start throwing more and more obstacles your way. Fire? Check. Quickly moving platforms? Check. Patrolling spiky enemies whose only goal is to flutter in the exact spot when you want to stand? Check, check, check! Also available is a Marathon mode: all the courses strapped together in one long run. That's great if you want to torment yourself. You can also go to Practice mode if you feel rusty.

Excellent reflexes are the only way you're going to get through this game in its entirety. Did I have the reflexes necessary to complete all 50 trials? Apparently, the answer is yes, which is surprising. Some of them were so frustrating that I cursed at my 3DS (in anger, obviously) after getting a 40+ death count, but then again, 10 Second Run really does follow the adage that practice makes perfect. Still, many of the levels may simply be too difficult for novice gamers, and they will surely be turned away by its difficulty. I did enjoy, however, the sweet taste of success when that last course was completed. Doing so unlocked the 1 Second Run mode, which is a series of 10 courses in which you have only one second to complete them. Indeed, there was frenzy, but I actually preferred those extra-brief bursts even more.

Get one more thing straight before you head to your Nintendo-based digital shopping centre: you're buying this for the gameplay. The graphics are amazingly simple, consisting of you, a red stick figure, traversing scenes with platforms made of black-outlined rectangles, tiny blue fires, and little ASCII enemies. And the music, though usually heart-pumping within the ten seconds you're listening, isn't going to top any fan charts. And there were little quirks as well. I also did not like how, in order to save, you had to select "QUIT". That seems counterintuitive.