Tall Man Run is a casual running game that features an orange balloon man racing down an obstacle course in various landscapes. The player's goal is to increase the man's weight and height as much as necessary to make him strong enough to complete the course, race down a rainbow-colored multiplier track, and then fight one or more enemies. The balloon man still performs well even if he's tall and thin instead of short and wide.
The player alters the balloon man's size by running him through blue height and width gates on the course that increase his size based on basic math equations, such as adding or multiplying, and through paired green arrows that point in opposite directions in an expanding direction. The player must watch out for shrinking obstacles that can kill the man, such as red gates that subtract and divide amounts, paired red arrows that point at each other, black bombs, turnstiles and yellow, black-striped barriers.
Tall Man Run's casual gameplay doesn't disappoint. The balloon man only runs when prompted by the player. The game also features easy achievement tasks. The player collects purple gemstones to purchase more speed, height and width and upgrade the character's color and headwear. If the player successfully reaches the multiplier track, they kick through barriers and collect more gems. They don't need to fight hard to win against enemies either since their power is directly related to the character's size. The player doesn't even have to key or tap to direct the character during fights and receives help from other balloon men in some boss-level bonus rounds.