Vancouver was recently added as a playable location in a popular mobile game -- or at least an interpretation of Vancouver designed by someone who has never visited.
Subway Surfers is an endless runner game that functions much like its slightly older cousin Temple Run. Actually -- if you took Temple Run and put it in a futuristic metropolis setting, you’d have basically made Subway Surfers. In both games your character is caught doing something they shouldn't, (stealing an ancient relic/spray painting a train car), you then have to run away from the local authorities (a 'roided-out ape/a portly police officer and his dog) lest you be mauled/arrested.
Vancity was added to the game’s playable maps as part of a virtual world tour. The game previously featured Mexico City, made spooky with a Day of the Dead theme.
In the game, you run at ever-increasing speeds while collecting coins and power-ups while at the same time trying to avoid a myriad of obstacles. In Subway Surfers’ Vancouver location, released Nov. 1, those obstacles include the game’s classic buffer stops as well as some… not-so-specific-to-Vancouver additions.
Oh no, not the leaves! Not the leaves! They’re in my eyes!
Leaves. If there’s anything the game designers at Subway Runner want you to know about Vancouver it's that we have leaves. When you open the game you’re met with the Vancouver branded logo spray-painted on a rail car. The logo features three generic skyscrapers, a massive maple leaf and a cluster of trees in the background which -- if you squinted -- could represent Stanley Park.
All around the opening screen swirls red and orange leaves. Leaves continue to fly around as you play too. As you run along the train tracks, what fills the open rail cars you can climb? Leaves. What’s the special surfboard you can spend hours upon hours getting? One giant maple leaf.
Aside from the leaves, there are some other vague Vancouver references. Apartment buildings with old-style street lamps might represent Gastown? A particularly angular building could be the Hotel Europe? Could the white and blue train cars perhaps be TransLink SkyTrains? Credit where credit is due though, a general homage to Stanley Park is paid when the cityscape fades away into a forest with thick trunked trees.
This is a Vancouverite? Right?
Along with the many, many leaves and the Vaguecouver references comes a new character called Mala, the “spirited environmentalist.” Mala is available to anyone who is able to collect 25,000 event tokens within the season event which ends on Nov. 22, 2021. When combined with the fully upgraded maple leaf surfboard, Mala can activate a power to plant trees and other greenery as she evades law enforcement… On second thought, maybe this is the most Vancouver game ever made.
