After a short “Checking data” loader, the Level 1 screen shows a blue cube marked 2 at the start of a pale track, a gate ahead, a coin counter and a settings gear. Nothing moves until you drag; the first drag starts the run.

The catalogue listing sets 2048 as the goal. In our first level, cubes worth up to 256 were visible further down the track. We did not reach the end of the level, so we cannot say what the largest number on it was.

The catalogue listing says so, and also mentions obstacles to dodge. Neither appeared in the short stretch of Level 1 that we played, so we cannot describe them; what we saw was the track, the numbered cubes, a gate and the coin counter.

Drag sideways. A horizontal drag with the mouse, or a swipe on a touch screen, moves your cube across the track, and the first drag also starts the run. Short drags are the safest way to make small corrections.

Steer into cubes with the same number as yours on the 2048 Cube Run track. The catalogue listing describes merging identical cubes as the way to climb towards 2048, so a 2 meets a 2, the resulting 4 needs a 4, and so on down the track.

2048, released by Gabriele Cirulli in 2014, is a sliding puzzle played on a still board. 2048 Cube Run is an independent game that keeps the doubling rule but sets it on a running track, so you merge by steering into matching cubes rather than by sliding tiles.

Its controls are swipes, according to the catalogue listing, and the frame is portrait 600×800, which suits a phone held upright. We tested 2048 Cube Run in a desktop browser with a mouse drag rather than on a phone.

Snake 2048.io also grows a body of numbered cubes, in an arena instead of on a track. 2048 X2 Merge Blocks and Falling Blocks 2048 merge numbers in five columns, and Gravity Merge and Fruit Merger merge orbs and fruit.