About Road Crosser
Road Crosser asks you to hop a chicken across eight lanes of traffic to reach the finish flag. Each successful crossing earns a point and starts a new level with a fresh layout of faster traffic, and a single hit ends the game.
How to play
- The chicken starts on the grass at the bottom centre of an 11 by 11 board. The flag row at the top is the goal.
- Between the start and the goal there are eight lanes of traffic, with a safe grass strip in the middle where no cars drive.
- Lanes alternate direction, and each lane has two or three vehicles. Some lanes carry longer buses that take up two squares.
- Reaching the top row scores one crossing and starts the next level with a newly randomised road.
- Traffic speed goes up with every level, on top of the random speed each lane is given.
- Being hit by any vehicle ends the game. There are no extra lives and no time limit.
- You can move left, right and back down as well as forward, but not off the edges of the board.
Controls
- Keyboard: arrow keys or W, A, S, D move one square per press.
- Touch: swipe in the direction you want to hop.
- On-screen pad: the four arrow buttons under the board move the chicken one square each.
Tips and strategy
- Use the middle strip. It is completely safe, so cross four lanes, pause, then plan the next four.
- There is no timer, so waiting on grass for a clear gap is always free. Standing in a lane is never safe.
- Look at the lane you are about to enter, not the one you are in. Move as soon as a vehicle has passed your column.
- Sideways moves help. If the gap is better one square to the left or right, step across before you go forward.
- Buses are twice as long as cars, so the gaps around them are shorter. Give bus lanes extra caution.
- A step backwards can save you when you misjudge a gap, as long as the lane behind you is clear.
Background
Road-crossing games date back to Konami's arcade game Frogger in 1981, in which a frog had to cross a busy road and then a river. The idea of hopping across lanes of moving traffic one square at a time has been revisited many times since, including endless mobile versions in the 2010s. The chicken is a nod to the old riddle about why the chicken crossed the road.
Questions
- Does it get faster?
- Yes. Each crossing starts a new level and raises the base speed of every lane, and the road layout is reshuffled each time.
- Is there a time limit?
- No. You can wait on the starting grass or the middle strip as long as you like.
- Where is my best score saved?
- Your highest number of crossings is stored in your browser's local storage on this device.