Arcadópolis
Mars Rover
Mars Rover: a free endless runner game
Mars Rover is a free endless runner game, in your browser with nothing to download. The base’s six-wheeled rover drives on its own across Arcadia Planitia, faster and faster, and you jump with its thrusters: in Mars gravity, jumps are long and floaty.
You have to jump cracks and big rocks, use the dunes to fly and collect real Martian mineral samples, which play a melody note by note. Batteries keep your energy up; if it runs out, the rover stops. You play with a single key or by tapping the screen.
It’s one of the 51 games in the Arcadópolis Games folder.
Free, no ads, nothing to install.
Install Mars Rover on its own on your home screen
What it has
- Mars gravity (3.71 m/s²): long, slow jumps and flights when you cross dunes fast.
- Thrusters to glide while you hold down, which use energy.
- Cracks, rocks, ramps, craters, soft sand and dust devils that lift you up.
- Real minerals: hematite, gypsum, olivine and jarosite, each with its own note.
- A changing sky: caramel afternoon, blue sunset, night with Phobos and dawn.
- A single key or a tap on the screen, with records for distance and samples.
How to play
- Open the Games folder and tap Mars Rover.
- Click, tap or press Space to start: the rover drives on its own.
- Jump the cracks and big rocks with Space (or a tap), and hold it down to glide.
- Collect samples and batteries, and go as far as you can before you crash or run out of energy.
The minerals of Mars
The samples are minerals that real rovers found on Mars. Hematite forms gray spherules that Opportunity found by the thousands, nicknamed “blueberries”; gypsum shows up in white veins left by water; olivine is a green mineral from volcanic rock, and yellow jarosite forms in acidic water. In the game they’re worth 10, 20, 30 and 50 points, and each one plays the next note of the melody.
Tips for going far
Jump a little before the cracks: the jump is long, but if you jump late you hit the edge. Use the thrusters sparingly, since they use energy, and don’t miss the batteries, especially the ones floating in the air. Small rocks aren’t dangerous, they just make you bounce; big ones flip the rover. On the dunes, staying on the ground is safer than flying without seeing where you’ll land.
Common questions
Why are the jumps so long?
Because gravity on Mars is 3.71 m/s², a little over a third of Earth’s. The game uses that number: a jump lasts more than two seconds, and crossing a crest fast makes the rover fly.
Why is the sunset blue?
On Mars, fine dust in the air scatters blue light forward, so the sky around the sun looks blue at sunset while the rest is caramel-colored. Rovers have photographed it. In the game, the sky changes with distance.
Can I play on my phone?
Yes: tap the screen to jump and keep your finger down to glide. On a computer you play with Space, the up arrow or W, and the down arrow drops you fast.
Also in Arcadópolis
Meteor ShowerDefend the Moon base from twelve real meteor showers with beams of light that burst in chains.
Happy SisyphusA rhythm game: notes come down the track and you play them on time; in Realistic mode, on a real piano.
Musical SnakeEvery bite is a note: eat them in order to build the scale while the snake plays the melody of what it has eaten.
Arcadópolis has 66 more apps on the same desktop: games, music, a 3D museum and a 3D library.