Stride and Prejudice gives thoroughly modern makeover to weepy Austen classic

THE Jane Austen favourite has been revamped as a computer game starring an on-the-run Lizzie Bennet. So is this a bit of fun, or is smartphone culture killing our classics?

A screenshot of Stride and Prejudice.

IF WE said you could turn any book from the annals of history into a computer game, what would you choose?

Probably something with guns or dragons, right?

Not the weepy romance and staid petticoats of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, surely.

Now we love Pride as much as the next Darcy-adoring Austenphile, but not even we saw this one coming.

To mark her 200th birthday, Lizzie Bennett (who is arguably Austen's most beloved heroine) has been turned into a computer game.

Behold, Stride and Prejudice.

Why didn't we think of this? Oh right, because Austen and gaming are an odd couple.

According to Britain's Independent newspaper, Stride and Prejudice takes the form of an endless runner game - a 2D sidescroller in the same vein as Mario, for example.

The book is the game. Your character, Elizabeth Bennet, runs from left to right across the screen as the actual text of the book forms the shifting platforms she has to run and jump across.

Miss Bennet runs by herself (headstrong and independent thing she is) - your only task is to tap the screen to jump the gaps between the text.

A screenshot of Stride and Prejudice.

What makes Stride a novel take on the endless scroller model is the reader mode, which allows your character to die infinite times so you get to enjoy Austen's book while you play.

In effect, it's an e-book with autoscrolling text and the constant requirement to save your heroine from dying (as if she needs it.)

We can hear Austen purists tut-tutting from here. Some will ask whether this is what pop culture is making of classic texts such as P & P.

But lighten up. Players say the experience of playing Stride and Prejudice is akin to reading the book. And the tapping of the screen is much like the turning of a page when reading a hard copy.

So, will you download Stride and Prejudice? Comment below or continue the conversation on Twitter @newscomauHQ