Last updated on February 15th, 2026 at 08:41 pm
Tampon Run – Education Game Review
Tampon Run is a Education/Action game from Cheryl Houser, first launched in 3rd February 2015.
It’s rated 9+ and currently has 667+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Tampon Run Stand Out
Help Luna rid the world of menstruation haters! Throw tampons at them and don’t let them confiscate yours!
How many enemies can you enlighten?
As featured in CBS.com, Time.com, Today.com, TeenVogue.com, Jezebel.com, NYDailyNews.com, Feministing.com, Fast Company Co.exist, among others.
“…if you’re into eight-bit nostalgia (or fighting the patriarchy), it’s also fun as hell.” – Fast Company, Co.exist
“…a simple platformer with ambitious goals. Your spunky, pixelated avatar runs across the screen to the right familiarly, defeating as many enemies as possible while conserving ammo….Throwing tampons at people feels very, very cool.” – KillScreenDaily.com
“…an 8-bit video game with a big mission” – Today.com
“…Tampon Run is a game both fun and educational, like Oregon Trail, with more periods.” – Bustle.com
“…[you] will definitely become addicted within the first five minutes of playing” – TeenVogue.com
High schoolers Andy Gonzales and Sophie Houser created Tampon Run to combat the taboo around menstruation. Developed during their summer at Girls Who Code, Tampon Run quickly went viral and has garnered the attention of major media outlets around the world. Join them in de-stigmatizing menstruation around the world!
Original music by: Drew Joy
This Education game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Tampon Run is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 17th February 2015
Recent improvements include:
This app has been updated by Apple to display the Apple Watch app icon.
- high score celebration
- pause button
- updated graphics
- bug fixes
Download & Availability
Tampon Run is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
We read the book before playing, and we love both! Would recommend.
Couldnt believe we found a Tampon game. Not all men are weird about Periods. Some of us have our own monthly periods.
We also love the retro pixelated graphics.
This generation isn't offended by this in some way shape or form. Surprised honestly.
Play Queen healthy mama we love this game is it download it and if you dont youre a misogynist and people hate you.
YOU WONT DARE TO DO BETTER THAN ME we AM AN ABSOLUTE LEGEND MAN 104 IS MY HIGH S ORE NOW BUT IM GETTING BETTER EVERYDAY.
We LOVE YOU AND THIS GAME THANK YOU FOR MAKING IT.
Playing Fibbage 2 on Jackbox games and they mentioned this game in a round so the whole family downloaded it and started playing simultaneously for almost an hour. Guys this game is so much fun.
We would like to comment on things that would make this game as a fellow game/app developer and player. We feel that a restart button would be better after you press pause to they can restart if they need to along with other characters like maybe a black women with curly hair and the same clothing and animation along with maybe power ups like maybe period pills or pain medicine along with maybe foods because everyone know a girl on her period with out food is the worst we know from experience.we hope you read over our comment so you can make this game even BETTER and we completely agree with this message.Have a great day.
Congrats to Andy & Sophie. Not only is this game fun, but its one of the most innovative concepts Ive seen in a while. Cant wait to see what your future brings.
We showed him this game and he was immediately addicted. Now we challenge each other for high score by texting high score pictures back and forth! Im hes currently winning. Its ok we have self control with the game.
We came across GirlsWhoCodes website and found out the story behind the game. Then with one google search, we found out there is an app. Awesome! What a wonderful program.
First of all congrats! This game is great and enjoyable. This is definitely needed; A game with a great agenda but also good gameplay.
This game is amazing! There should be a second one when you have to bounce off of pads like doodle jump! We love how this game is teaching how mensuration is totally normal.
Very addicting but you guys need to update it last update was 2 yrs ago.
This game is fun and our 40 year old map ther loves it too.
Cool game we are reading ur book right now and its cool.
This game is what we need honestly. We are that girl with no filter. We talk about our period no matter who's in the room. It shouldn't be stigmatized. So yeah now our boyfriend has this game too. We do have some suggestions though. We know it's meant to be more of a PSA than game but since it's still a game what about some upgrades? Maybe a jumbo pack? That carries more than 5 tampons? Super tampons, that maybe can shoot down two enemies in a row. Maybe you could pick up some pamprin or chocolate or something that gives you invincibility for like a few seconds? Seriously guys that would be great.
Finally a game that we can play that shows the empowerment of women! We enjoy this game and would love a sequel. Plz make more. -A strong independent woman.
We love it! Girl Power They should add an iPad version.
We love the message of the game. What a time to be living in. The object of the game is simple, and playing it is fun, challenging, and addicting. We really like the 8-bit style.
THANK YOU! Empowering, inspiring, addicting, fun game for all ages.
Nothing beats the feeling of shooting boys with tampons. This game is awesome! Plus, after, we shoot the victim, the tampon turns into a pad and flies away. The game also has addictive music and colors (the background is red, like blood). Not to be weird but, this game is also a nice conversation starter; we just whip our phone out and start playing "Tampon Run". We basically love everything about this game.
This game is a lot of fun. It's easy to play and addicting.
The game itself is so much fun but we think it could use a little more. A gender selection would most likely satisfy most people's requests. The game has a wonderful message and its quite funny too. We wouldn't go so far as to say to put power ups and other things in the game to go farther than 93 which we're yet to pass because it's just a fun little game sending a message, but they would be definitely liked.
We love this game but we wish we could pick our character like the ones they have in the intro. We are African American and we feel that we should get to play an African American girl in the game. No offense to any white people but it's the truth lol.
THIS GAME IS AMAZING. Its telling girls not to be afraid of their bodies and not to hide the fact that your on your period. It's completely normal and this game is life thank you goodnight we love hayes grier go follow us on Twitter @magichayes.
It's fun, but it needs better music and sound effects. (:.
We love the concept of the game. Just saying "every girl has this and people should not be putting them down for it". It just gives women confidence and it gives a strong message to the people who put down women for menstruation, which as it says in the game, is a normal bodily function.
We love the idea of the game. It's funny, and it's very true. Boys are afraid of tampons and think it's disgusting when in reality, it's a part of life. Very interesting and fun game. Love it.
We saw your documentary of it on snapchat and just had to download it.
Laughing at all the people rating it one star and saying stuff like "ew tampons" like that's exactly what this game is meant to stop overall we love the concept and the message.
Ok we love this game this is so great and it relieve stress to when your on it you connect with the character and everything about it is perfect we say there should be more games like this feminist unite.
This is the best game we have ever played.
As a girl we find the empowering and the story behind it is very true. We also find the game hilarious and entertaining unlike many of the games being created now. Thank you for this game.
We can't express how much we are in love with this game! The maxi pads with wings?! We laughed so hard we cried! This is literally the best app on our phone. Thank you so much! You guys are the best.
Glad someone speaks up about how periods don't have to be so secretive.
The objective of the game is basically killing the men in it. Wow such an amazing game can't wait to see more.
We fully support this game and the message behind it! Made us chuckle!! Fun way to make tampons and periods less scary.
This game is super empowering and has a great message! We love how it's like a female equivalent to Super Mario. It's about time women were represented in a way that actually relates to us.
We love the idea of this game because, you're absolutely right. Women shouldn't be embarrassed about their period. And nobody should make them feel that way. We mean periods show that we are strong, feminine, and amazing. We read about this game in the seventeen magazine and immediately downloaded it. And even other than that this game is suppppeerrr addicting and fun.
Girl power! We love this app, we feel like us and our friends would come up with this. We would love if in the future they made it so there were upgrades (accesories for the character, different characters, maybe even bloody tampons??) we approve & recommend this game to anyone that loves period humor as much as we do.
Just got the game and is SUPER FUN but we're still gonna hide the app from our family. We know what this supports and we TOTALLY LOVE it but it's still kinda weird if it'll be found.
The girls who created this are so cool. We're gonna start throwing tampons at people in real life.
We love the game. It's really addicting, and the intro makes us laugh every time. Thanks.
Feminist as frick. And addictive. :).
We wish we could throw tampons at some of the men we know in real life. Since that won't happen, we will gladly spend a few minutes of our day shooting tampons at little pixilated men.
The game is great we're a guy and we love it but we like the more pixelated girl but we're sure some like the new one so we would like to see a way to change ur character like retro girl new girl and so on.
Love this game love the changes you made exept the graphics definatley liked them better before. Awesome game.
We have to say, we like this game. It's kinda weird, we told our friends all about it and they really like it! One problem is, well nothing.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.0.2
- Size: 6.55 MB
- iOS: 7.1 or later
- Languages:
- Content Advisory: Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
- Developer: Cheryl Houser
Last updated: 17th February 2015 | Genre: Education, Action | Developer: Cheryl Houser