Sprintlimb

You don't press 'run', you operate each leg muscle directly. Alternate the thighs and calves in rhythm to build a stride, keep your balance, and cover the distance. Lose coordination and the ragdoll tumbles. Master the gait across three track-and-field events.

• Q / W drive the thighs, O / P drive the calves
• Coordinate the four muscles into a steady, balanced gait
• Fall over and the run ends

• 100m Sprint, run the distance without falling
• Hurdles, same gait, but flex both legs up to leap each barrier
• Long Jump, build speed, then plant and spring at the takeoff board for distance
• Optional Assist toggle for easier balance

• Desktop: Q / W (thighs) and O / P (calves); Enter or R to restart
• Phone & tablet: tap the on-screen muscle pads

• Find a slow, even rhythm first, speed comes after balance
• In hurdles, flex both legs up together just before the barrier
• For the long jump, commit to the plant the instant you cross the takeoff board

Sprintlimb is a nod to QWOP, made by Bennett Foddy in 2008, in which four keys control a sprinter's thigh and calf muscles individually rather than making him run.

It is deliberately, precisely awful. Nothing is random and nothing is unfair — the physics are consistent and a patient player really can cross a hundred metres — but the mapping between what you press and what a leg does is so unlike walking that competence takes hours. Games usually hide the difficulty of ordinary movement, and removing the abstraction turns out to be funny, humbling and genuinely instructive.

Sprintlimb is an original free browser game in the deliberately-awkward ragdoll athletics tradition, where simply running is the challenge. Just open and play.

A free, original browser game on PlayPendium. No download, no install.