Pencil Rush — Play Free Online

Pencil Rush is a short, colourful runner where you are the pencil. You glide down a track, slide sideways to dodge obstacles, scoop up extra pencils for your collection, and try to reach the finish line, where the run pays off with a picture to colour in. It was made by Superinstant and sits in the casual, arcade corner of the genre rather than the punishing one.

A session is quick and low-pressure. Runs are brief, the controls are a single sideways motion, and one clean attempt is enough to see how the course works. That makes it a good palate cleanser if you spend most of your time on Doodle Jump: the same one-more-try pull, but with the world rushing toward you instead of scrolling beneath you.

How to play

Steering is purely left and right. On a computer, hold the left mouse button and drag to move the pencils sideways, or use the A and D keys. On a phone or tablet, swipe with your finger. There is no jump button and nothing to aim, so all your attention goes to reading the track ahead.

Hitting an obstacle ends the run, so the job is to thread through gaps while picking up more pencils along the way. Each pickup adds to your colour collection. If you survive to the end, you reach the finish line and get to colour in a picture.

Tips

• Make small, early corrections instead of big last-second swings. A short drag keeps you steady; a long one often overshoots into the next obstacle.
• Look a little way down the track, not at your pencil. Spotting the next gap while you are still clearing the current one is most of the skill.
• Do not chase every pickup. A pencil in a risky spot is not worth a failed run when the finish line is what completes the level.
• If you play with the mouse, keep your hand relaxed and move from the wrist; a tense grip makes steering twitchy.

Similar games on Doodle Jump

If you like dodging at speed, Bird Jumper keeps the one-button simplicity of the jumpers, while Helix Jump swaps sideways steering for timing a fall through gaps. For something with more thinking, Fireboy and Watergirl asks for planning and teamwork instead of reflexes, and Bouncy Basketball is a good pick when you want a head-to-head match.

Pencil Rush suits short breaks, touch screens and anyone who wants a gentle runner with a visible reward at the end. It runs in the browser with nothing to install.