Long Leg Master

A balance game in which the only task is to keep moving forward without falling over, and the reason that is difficult is that the character has legs several times too long for its body. Each step is a physics event rather than an animation, so the centre of mass swings with every input and a step taken slightly too early tips the whole thing over. The comedy and the difficulty come from the same place. Because the limbs are long, small mistakes amplify instead of correcting, and the recovery from a stumble is genuinely possible but requires doing the opposite of what instinct suggests — slowing down rather than catching up. The path adds slopes, steps and narrow sections, none of which are hard in themselves and all of which are hard when your legs are doing this. Runs are short and restarts immediate, which the format needs, and distance is the only score. What makes it worth more than one attempt is that the physics are consistent: the same rhythm of steps produces the same gait, so it is a game that can genuinely be learned rather than one that falls over at random. Most players get noticeably further by their tenth try than their first, which is the sign the difficulty is real rather than arbitrary.