Couldn't Earn to Die be considered either?
Crud, I couldn't remember how
Earn to Die works, it's been awhile since I have had a chance to play it.
Okay, so
Earn to Die,
Earn to Die 2012, and
Run Right, might not completely fit the distance category. Run Right keeps track of distance, so it still has a more distance game feel.
Earn to Die I don't remember if it keeps track of your distance, but it has many common elements of a distance game. You can only travel so far without upgrading your vehicle and traveling distance indirectly completes a stage.
So a distance game should typically fit these criteria:
1.) Keep track of the distance you go or have a distance counter somewhere within the game.
2.) Traveling, typically in one direction, is the main element, criterion for progress, and goal of the game.
2 Subsection: Goal of the Game:2 (Subsection 1)A set specific distance to travel is the ultimate goal of the game.
Or
2 (Subsection 2) The player can travel an unlimited distance, but a gaining a high distance score is, in essence, the highest achievement of the game.
Or
2 (subsection 3) A game with goals containing both 2 (Subsection 1) and 2 (Subsection 2)
3.) Have a way of upgrading your vehicle/character for reaching further distances in subsequent turns.
4a.) Be only one level.
Or
4b.) Be more than one level, but distance is the main element, criterion for progress, and goal for each level and the game as a whole.
5.) A distance game may or may not include a mechanism that launches the vehicle/character at the start of the stage. Games that include a launching mechanism may be considered as distance and launch games.
Technical, okay, unnecessary, sure, but it was the best I could do at classifying a distance game. You can also see the difference from a distance and 2D racing game or Monster Truck game as the goals in those games are to either beat a time or reach the right or left end of the screen, yet distance is an indirect consequence, time is usually a factor, and usually nothing limits your travel unless you wreck your vehicle (unlike
Earn to Die where fuel is a factor). I guess those Monster Truck games are kind of a grey area.