MEOWRUN: Cat Runner

Made for iPhone Duo — fills the unfolded inner display and keeps running when you fold or unfold.

Run through twenty-one worlds with the Meowcast pixel cat to find your lost best friend.

■ The story
Your best friend Meowcast is the cat who tells the weather every morning. One day the Storm Cloud Boss takes Meowcast away — the weather goes haywire and even the roads start to spin. You cross ten weather worlds and face the boss on a typhoon pier, but it flees across the sea with your friend as a hostage. From world eleven you chase it country by country, beat the Storm King in world twenty (Nice)… and reunite in Heaven above the clouds. Every boss you beat drops a clue for your Clue Notebook; after the ending, your friend's diary opens and the two of you run together.

■ One-tap controls
Tap to jump, tap again in the air for a double jump. Portals turn on their own — when the road turns, rotate your phone to keep running along walls and ceilings (turning off auto-rotate helps). Your first run pauses so you can learn the controls.

■ Twenty-one worlds
Worlds 1-10 (weather): a sunny alley, cloudy hills, rainy street, thunder hills, snowy village, heatwave asphalt, night walk, foggy riverside, dusty downtown, typhoon pier.
Worlds 11-21 (world trip): Seoul hanok alley, Bangkok rainy street, a snowy Italian wine street, Bali sunny beach, a cool New York bridge, Sapporo snow village, Maldives rainy sea, Serengeti squall, foggy Paris riverside, Nice heatwave beach — and Heaven.

■ A unique boss, stage and special move per world
Magpie Boss, Puff Cloud, Frog King, Lightning Dokkaebi, Snowman King, Heatwave Lizard, Doctor Owl, Fog Ghost, Dust Twister, the Storm Cloud Boss, Club Goblin, Naga, Masked Jester, Monkey King, Pigeon Gang Boss, Tengu Crow, Octopus Pirate, Lion Boss, Gargoyle and the Storm King. Each boss has its own stage and entrance and throws skills that match its name (acorns, tongue, fan, masks, ink…), adding one more each world. At half health it gets enraged and unleashes a special move! Tap at the glowing moment the attack lands to bounce it back.

■ Air-dash with the mouse
From world four a little mouse joins. Tap, tap, then hold — an air dash that clears even lightning. It teams up for the boss fight.

■ Bonus mini-games
Worlds 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18 have a fish-shop bonus: a timing-tap queue, or catch falling fish while dodging junk left and right (denser the further you go). Every fish caught before you get hit is yours.

■ Outfits are shields
Every outfit blocks one obstacle — it bounces off and your cat runs on. The yellow raincoat blocks two in rainy worlds, the trench coat two in cold worlds, the blue puffer three anywhere. The straw hat vacuums snacks until the next portal, the mask for four turns, the scarf until the end of the world. A used-up outfit is bought again with fish in the wardrobe shop.

■ Fish combos · your cat · today's weather bonus
Eat fish in a row for a combo — miss one and it breaks; the best combo per world is shown in the lobby. Run as Shadow, Cheese or Patches, or adopt Snowy, Creamy and Dodo with the fish you collect. Rumor has it another cat is hiding somewhere. The world matching today's Seoul weather pays double fish (no location access needed).

■ A cat from Meowcast
The runner is the cat from Meowcast, the pixel-cat weather app. The ? on the home screen links to it.

Worlds 1-10 are free. Worlds 11-21 open forever with one purchase, "World Trip" ($2.99). No account needed; progress and outfits are saved on your device.