Crossy Road by Hipster Whale - Review

Crossy Road by Hipster Whale

App Store/iOS Release Date: 24th October 2014
Last Updated: 17th January 2015

Other Platforms: Android, Kindle

Genre: Arcade (Endless)

Story Mode: No
Age Rating: 9+ for: Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence, Infrequent/Mild Profanity or Crude Humour

Aim: Survive as long as possible by crossing over roads, streams, rivers and more whilst avoiding the various obstacles encountered including trees, cars, trucks, animals, boulders, gravestones and more. Avoid standing still too long or moving backwards three spaces, or else the Eagle will come and kill you before anything else even has the chance!

Controls: Tap to move forward, swipe left, right and backwards to move in those directions.

Review

Welcome to my first non-school related post - a game review! Now, I'm not going to lie, I haven't got much experience in reviewing games, so this may not be quite to the standard you may expect. However, since downloading this game yesterday (yes, only yesterday...) I haven't been able to stop playing it, and I wanted to convey my thoughts on it in more detail beyond a few tweets on my Twitter account @thereaderrunt.

Crossy Road is a simple game with a simple objective: to get as far as you can without dying. It has become a hit in countries across the globe, and is a familiar sight on any style of phone in any social setting. It was born of the old question 'why did the chicken cross the road?' - hence both the initial character of the chicken and also its name, 'Crossy Road'. This in itself I found to be quite a clever idea, to turn that old concept into a game. If you ask the question with relevance to the game, the answer is still 'nobody knows' originally, and then it slowly turns into 'because this is an addictive game, and I can't stop making it cross roads'.

The first thing which you encounter when you start the game is the screen simply saying 'Crossy Road'. Your character is a chicken, easily recognisable from the colouring and appearance, and when you tap the screen once there is a very short induction into the game controls (described above). From there, you are let loose to play the game, and believe me, it takes a few deaths to get used to exactly what you are required to do.

This is a game which very quickly becomes addictive due to its simplistic graphics and gameplay, both of which are very easy to become accustomed to. It is also vaguely reminiscent of Flappy Bird (block graphics, repetitive motion, controls), Spikes (character/appearance variations) and Dumb Ways To Die (colour scheme, sound effects, controls, unlockable characters) in its way, which are more of the most popular mobile games of recent times. Each of the 'lanes' of cars, trucks, trains etc. are, to my best recognition, on a loop - if you watch them long enough you see that there is a set pattern which repeatedly continues. This means that it should, theoretically, be very simple - but it isn't, trust me!

Crossy Road is a game which requires a lot of patience (though not too much, as that can also get you killed...) and skill, as well as forward-planning and looking. Bearing in mind just how many dangers are lurking, you have to be quick on your virtual feet to move forward and not get flattened. I personally find it fun, yet challenging, and it certainly manages to both make me jump and make me laugh. Just be aware that, if you played Flappy Bird and felt the frustration of that, you WILL be made to feel the same way when playing this game. It has the same effect on you.

One of the key features of the game is that you can unlock more playable characters using the in-game currency you collect: small, bright yellow coins with a 'c' in their centre. These can appear anywhere throughout the game - on floating logs, in the roads, on the grass, on the railway lines etc. - and usually appear in more 'difficult' locations to reach, meaning that they are both challenging to get and rewarding to collect. Free coin gifts are offered by the game at timed intervals, starting every few minutes and progressing to every few hours, and once you have collected enough coins (100) you can use them in the vending machine (see below) which will then give you a box containing a character. Be warned: sometimes the machine can give you characters you've already unlocked, so it's not necessarily as easy as using it x amount of times to unlock all of them! This is another factor of the game which makes it addictive, as you have to play it for a long time and collect an awful lot of coins in order to finally collect all of the different characters. As pictured above-right, there is a huge variety of characters available - currently, there are 69 - ranging from the chicken you start off with to a kangaroo, a rusty robot, a crazy old man and more. Special characters designed by famous YouTube stars such as PewDiePie (Felix Kjellberg) and AmazingPhil (Phil Lester) even appear - the Pew Die Pug and the Emo Goose being the examples of those two named YouTubers. Most of the characters are equally available to purchase through the Apple/Google Play Stores for £0.79 if you really can't bear the aggravation of collecting the coins and buying the slot machine chances that way, or if you just have money to spend.

Above: The process of using the vending machine to try and unlock a new playable character. This time, I unlocked the 'Big Fat Pig'. (Now I need more coins again...)

The automatic screenshot feature is one I have mixed feelings about. On the one hand, it is great if you're not quick enough to capture a particularly annoying/humorous death, but on the other, it is also quite irritating to have to watch every so often when you are keen to just play and play non-stop. I overall think it is a good feature, but perhaps should be modified to be a manual feature, prompted by the player themselves when they want a screenshot of their death taken.

The final thing I have to mention about the game is that I like its layout. After each game there is a clean options screen with clear and easy, recognisable icons, and it is not easy, like in many other games, to click the 'purchase' button for characters and other in-game purchases. I am sick to death of pressing such buttons in other games, so I am so glad that in this one the buttons are kept firmly away from the game-relevant ones such as replay, the leaderboard and the screenshot library. Equally, I like the layout of the settings menu as all are clearly described and easily toggled where desired. In particular I am fond of the 'no shadows' option, as I feel it makes the game slightly easier to play, e.g. coins are not as hidden away in many situations!

Overall, I easily award this game five out of five stars. Though based on an age-old concept it is creative, fun, engaging and aptly challenging, providing that sense of accomplishment and amazement where appropriate. I would recommend it to everyone, but with the warnings that a) you WILL get frustrated at both it and yourself and b) you WILL become addicted to playing it.

Rating: 5/5 Stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★