Genre:  Arcade
Platform:  NES

We had this game when I was a kid.  It was a really quirky game which had you running.  That was the premise, as far as I knew.  You were running through a world.  Toward what, I don’t know and never did find out.  Here’s what Wikipedia says:

“In the game, the player assumes the role of Jack the WorldRunner, a wild “space cowboy” on a mission to save various planets overrun by serpent-like beasts. The game takes place in Solar System #517, which is being overrun by a race of aliens known as Serpentbeasts, who are led by the evil Grax.  As WorldRunner, the player must battle through eight planets to destroy Grax.”

Yeah, the game never mentions a word of this when you’re playing.  As far as I know, you were just a kid late for school or something.  You don’t control when the runner runs – he does that automatically.  You do control his direction.  There are barriers you need to run through and mobs to avoid.  There are power ups to collect and you can jump as well.  You can jump pretty high.  In fact, there are parts of the levels that require careful timing of your jumps to pass.

This was a commonly played game in our house.  As soon as I heard the music in the video below, I smiled and immediately started humming along. It’s pretty catchy. We would never really get farther than maybe the fifth level, but we sure tried.  Check it out if you get the chance.