Tagalong Trail

Tagalong Trail is a hopper in chunky 3D blocks: tap to hop forward, swipe to go left, right or back, and get as far as you can across grass, roads, railways and rivers. Cars, vans, trucks and slow tractors run along the roads; logs drift down the rivers; trains come with a flashing light and a bell. Your score is the furthest row you reached.

What makes it its own game is the line. Every young one you pick up joins the line behind you and lands exactly where you landed, one hop later. So stopping is never quite safe: stand on the grass with your line still across the road and the next car takes the young ones still on it. Losing one does not end the run — they tumble out of line and away — but it costs you what they were worth.

Every 25 rows there is a nest, drawn right across the trail with a little bowl for each column. Each young one that hops into it pays more than the last — two coins, then four, then six — and the nest adds five of its own, so a long line brought home is worth far more than a short one. Some young ones wait alone, some as two or three siblings side by side, each with a ring and a heart over it so you see them coming.

The idea is to unlock characters. Coins buy eggs at 100 each, and every egg hatches a family you do not have yet: the duck you start with, then hen and chicks, pig and piglets, sheep, cat, dog, bunny, cow, fox, penguin, frog and mouse — and each parent brings its own young behind it. Five more are earned, not bought: the Panda, the Owl, the Hedgehog, the Turtle and the Golden Goose. The trail runs through five lands, one every 50 rows: meadow, autumn, snow with ice floes on the rivers, desert, and night with the headlights on. Linger too long at the back and a stork carries you off. A daily trail, the same for everyone, a daily gift, five languages, and every sound is made in your browser.