Running in the Volcano

The game is located in the land of Tyrannia, which is near Terror Mountain. Random factoid: Tyrannia was found in the Ice Caves. The game's rules are very simple: You left-click your mouse and avoid everything except the crystals and bubbles. That's means avoiding that horrible fireballs and boulders. But crystals are good, they add up to your score, and bubbles are an extra defence. I will now explain each thing/item that appears in the game. This may bore you if you don't like to listen to me talk for long. ;)

You play as Glubgar, a Tyrannian Scorchio who found his way into a very hot volcano. I don't know how he found it, or why on Neopia he'd want to go inside a volcano. Now you must guide him out, or try to. He'll never get out of that volcano really, because he accidently went into the most large and never-ending volcano of Tyrannia. His controls are: left-click to fly up, no-click to fall down, and space bar to halt. Now, the halt confuses a lot of people. I find it very good to use, unlike other guides that say don't use the space bar. It comes in handy if you're about to bump into something. After letting go of the space bar, you will get a speed boost though. Use this speed boost wisely! Be careful not to run into a block or fireball after letting go of the space bar.

The enemies, boulders, fireballs and clouds, are a must to avoid. Boulders are shaped like red blocks. Boulders come from out of nowhere, and always seem to come out right when you're near them. Boulders can come out the ceilings and floors, and go up and down repeatedly. If you have a higher score, the boulders will come out faster and go up and down faster. Glubgar will instantly be destroyed if he touches a block, so stay away from those pesky boulders!

Fireballs go across the screen from right to left. Fireballs are small red-orange-yellow spots that go across the screen. Fireballs can come in groups too, which makes it harder for you to avoid them. Fireballs often appear where crystals are, and the higher score you have, more fireballs appear. Fireballs, like blocks, go faster when you have a high score.

Clouds slow you down and make it harder to get out of the way of boulders and fireballs. Clouds are a puffy yellow-orange cloud that slowly appears in tunnels and such. They don't destroy you, but they are quite annoying as they slow down your speed. I haven't seen any clouds while playing Volcano Run for quite a while though, so you'll probably not run into a cloud.

Crystals appear in rows of threes and add up to your score. Crystals are small and blue. They are good! But if a boulder or fireball is near them, you shouldn't risk a life to get them. Sometimes after you get crystals, the screen movement speeds up a bit. I like it better when the screen goes faster. The boulders and fireballs appear easier to avoid while going faster.

Bubbles are like an extra life. Bubbles are round and light blue. You should always try to get them, unless there's a block near it. It sure is annoying when there's a boulder near the bubble, because then you can't get it. If you touch a boulder or fireball or lava wall while having a bubble around you, you won't die. How great is that? But sadly, bubbles don't appear much at all after you get 2000 points. I've never seen a bubble after getting over 2000 points. But I do think I've heard someone say they got bubbles after 2000 points.

Now I'll explain the various types of tunnels. A half-tunnel, a tunnel that's half tunnel and half cave, usually has a bubble right before the entrance to the tunnel and normally has some boulders. Half-tunnels have fireballs shooting by sometimes. Tunnels, long and narrow, always have a lot of boulders going up and down. The boulders are easy to avoid most of the time. Randomly, a half-tunnel will be at the end of a tunnel and have fireballs coming at you. How annoying!

Caves are wide gaps that have a bunch of fireballs, I mean a bunch of fireballs, and two boulders most of the time. I think I've seen three boulders before. Not too sure about that. Caves have three crystals, all in a nice and neat row. After exiting a cave you'll sometimes you'll enter a short tunnel and quickly enter a cave again. This can happen repeatedly and will really add up your score because you can avoid almost anything in caves. The reason you can avoid a lot of stuff in caves is because there is so much room for you fly up and down.

Lava walls are the red walls around Glubgar. They surround the volcano inside. You'll get an instant game over if you touch a lava wall. I wish you could just touch the walls without dying, like in Dubloon Disaster, where you can bump into as many walls as you want. But then that'd make the game easier if you could survive while touching walls, so I guess that's a good thing actually, for me at least.

I've never actually got a trophy from Volcano Run, but I have got on number nine on the top high scores list of Volcano Run. My highest score on Volcano Run is 4,186 points. Woohoo. :)

Hope you liked this article and hope it has helped you in playing Volcano Run. It's my first article I've written for the Neopian Times. May you get a high score in Volcano Run and earn a trophy one day!