Wind-up Knight

In Wind-up Knight the player plays a wind-up knight on a mission to rescue a kidnapped princess. It is a side-scrolling auto-running platformer and the knight runs on its own with a constant pace. The player has four actions: jump, slash, roll, and block. Each corresponds to one kind of hazard: pits or spikes, enemies, narrow passages, and falling objects or fire from above. The levels are predetermined. There are no random elements. The enemies are practically just roadblocks waiting to be slashed.

Each level has coins, a card, and some cranks. None are required to finish the level but the cranks are required to wind-up the knight. If the knight winds-down the level is lost. The card is usually hidden away from the obvious path. All coins and the card have to collected in one run to get a perfect score.

The score doubles as an in game currency. The currency can be used to buy items or to unlock levels. The currency gained from perfect scores are just enough to unlock the next levels, provided that no items are bought. None of the items are required to finish the game so that the game can be played through without paying anything.