Race The Sun

Race The Sun is a grave and I dig it... The twelve hundred hours Steam credits me for doesn't even scratch my true numbers hahaha.... "just one more run"

Used to play this game while things weren't going too great, it kept me distracted, great game.

This game has always held a special place in my heart. It was one of the first video games I actually played, aside from things like Minecraft, and I have never stopped playing it. Although my playtime is low on steam, I have played for hours and hours on my Playstation. If you are debating on wether or not to buy this game, I highly suggest doing so, because this game literally never gets boring.
Smashing my face into things has been fun since 2013. Thank you, Flippfly.

Minimalist runner with some rougelite elements. I like the whole avoid the shadows mechanic. Needs better music, though.

Race the Sun is one of those rare games that hooks you, the minimalist low-poly visuals and driving soundtrack make every run feel cinematic, and the daily map rotation genuinely keeps things fresh enough to justify coming back. It's the kind of game you pick up for "just one run" and suddenly an hour has passed. That said, I have to be honest: the leaderboards and server features seem to be largely dead on the Steam version, which stings because chasing scores against other players was clearly a big part of what made this special. If you can make peace with playing it purely for your own personal best, it's still a satisfying reflex-sharpener that earns its place in any casual rotation. Just don't expect active developer support — the mobile version appears to be where their attention went.

This is a wonderfully simple but challenging game, and integrates really well with VR (even allowing you to bypass Steam VR). This was one of the first games I played when I moved over to Steam over a decade ago, and it still holds up today.
This is a little indie game with very simple graphics, a very simple control scheme, and pretty simple gameplay, but the true challenge of the game quickly becomes clear. Like the boardgame Go, this is a simple game to learn but a difficult one to master.
Given the length of each gameplay loop, this is an easy game to slot in easily here or there, and requires only minimal warm-up to get back into it.
The only real caveat these days is that the servers shut down long ago. That means no more leaderboards, but that minor thing aside, the actual game itself is quite fun.
Is it worth $10? Your mileage may vary on that. Personally, I might try to get it on sale if one happens, but it's still an enjoyable outing either way.

Race the Sun has been a consistently solid game over the years as a quick launch runner.
Each run is a challenging thrill and the constant reminder that your source of power is setting makes for tense on the fly decision making that can extend or end your runs. The slow build-up of speed & sparse obstacles in the first level is welcomed as someone who has to acclimate themselves with high speed movement. The levels become progressively harder with more obstacles, challenging routes based on your decisions and of course urgency to keep your ships battery charged by staying within the suns light as it gradually sets.
The game controls the ship's speed based on its position within the light & how much charge your battery has when entering & traversing through the shade of obstacles and the sun. Your speed will decrease in the shade as your battery depletes and once it has been depleted by either the sun setting your inability to leave the shade, the run will end; on that note it will also end if you crash into any obstacle.
Each level features three boons that affect your gameplay, The yellow boon is a speed boost that gives you a massive burst of speed helping you extend your runs in dire times; The green boon allows you to jump using spacebar to avoid obstacles and the purple boon gives you a onetime Resurrection that allows you to continue a run upon crashing. All in all, you are limited to controlling the ships horizontal movement and only upon collecting the aforementioned boon, the vertical.
There is a steam workshop & level editor available; the top five or so worlds by the community are incredibly well made and offer a change to what the base game's worlds provide with references & placement in other media's worlds, although there's not much beyond those aforementioned worlds, unless you wish to make them yourself.
Race the Sun has been one of my favourite load and play games since 2013 but sadly with my latest playthrough I've been notified that the leaderboards are now defunct. The shutdown of the leaderboards is a part of any games lifecycle but I found that in Race the Sun's case it has ruined a level of short term replayability by removing the record of your own runs and that of other players, thus affecting a sense of improvement. At this point in the games life you will have to manually track the relevant information or maintain visual memory to have that sense of improvement.
Conclusion
Race the Sun has lost short term replayability with the shutdown of its leaderboards but the game itself offers a great level of challenge with tense pathing and on the fly puzzle solving linked to the sun & battery charge mechanic. There is a lot you can get out of Race the Sun by challenging yourself even if the game is extremely simple. There are three worlds in the base game each drastically different from the other and community content that provides unique experiences/challenge as well.
I greatly recommend the Race the Sun to anyone interested in the runner genre or who wants a game that can provide challenges in small pockets of time. It's a steal during sales and while I would have recommended the title at full price in the past, I'd say pick it up on sale when possible for $1.45AUD.