Crossy Road is a 2014 mobile title developed and published by Hipster Whale. The game’s concept takes the joke of “Why did the chicken cross the road?” and turns it into an endless runner with heavy inspiration taken from the classic Frogger. While it was first launched for iOS devices, it eventually became playable on PC web browsers in 2018.
Crossy Road Premise
©Screenshot from Crossy Road.
When you first launch Crossy Road, the surface simplicity of the game might surprise you. You jump forward through an endless series of obstacles, avoiding anything that might put you in harm’s way. By swiping your screen in the direction you want to move, you navigate traffic, rivers and other perilous hurdles, but this isn’t just a remake of Frogger. Here, the camera sneaks up on you, meaning you’ve got very limited time to complete your movements. This generates a sense of urgency in the gameplay loop. The longer you survive, the more difficult it becomes to keep up with the pace.
The game randomly generates the levels, so no two runs are the same. Along the way, you collect a variety of collectibles that you can use to unlock new characters for future use. At the end of most runs, the game grants you access to the prize machine. Here, you can spend your in-game cash on new characters, too. Sometimes, it’ll even give you them for free! Crossy Road hands these giveaways out in intervals, ensuring you don’t get too much too soon.
While it may seem simple at first, there’s a steep learning curve to getting better at Crossy Road. Only the best will be able to keep up and get the highest scores.
Crossy Road Main Characters
©Screenshot from Crossy Road.
The chicken is certainly the intended character for use in Crossy Road, or else the joke doesn’t quite land. However, the game does offer a solid selection of characters for you to choose from, which you can earn just by playing the game. Certain characters are completely inaccessible unless you’re willing to part with real cash to unlock them.
The characters you can unlock depends the version that you’re playing. For example, the Android version of Crossy Road features an Android Robot character. There are also various pop culture references, such as a character based on the #thedress trend. Considering the game was released almost a decade ago, these references are certainly an interesting time capsule to behold.
Crossy Road Titles in the Series
©Screenshot from Crossy Road.
Despite Crossy Road being a sole mobile title, it received a few spin-offs that technically make it a series. The first, CroXZy Road, was a port of the game for the ZX81 created by Bob Smith. Little footage of it exists online, and it’s now unavailable to download, meaning CroXZy Road could eventually be lost to time.
The next, Disney Crossy Road, capitalized on the success of the original game by adding over 100 Disney characters to the roster, with the likes of Moana, Mickey Mouse, and Donald Duck all featured. Unfortunately, the developers shut the game down in 2020, and it’s now impossible to access.
Crossy Road Castle is the closest thing we have to a sequel, although it’s a complete change in genre, being an endless co-op platformer supporting four players at a time. We’re unsure if gamers will ever receive a fully-fledged sequel in the vein of the original, but it’s entirely possible that Hipster Whale believes the time for that has long-passed.
- Crossy Road (2014)
- CroXZy Road (2015)
- Disney Crossy Road (2016)
- Crossy Road Castle (2020)
Crossy Road Cheat Codes
©Screenshot from Crossy Road.
There are simply no cheat codes in existence for Crossy Road, unfortunately. However, the game does have plenty of hidden unlockable characters that it doesn’t tell you about that you can’t receive from the in-game prize machine.
It may be a little more work than using cheat codes, but these unlocks are well worth knowing about if you’re an avid player of the game.
| Name | How To Unlock |
|---|---|
| Ace | While playing as Rocky, collect 50 burgers. |
| Andy Sum | Reach 85% of your high score while playing as Mallard. |
| Anglerfish | While playing as any ocean character, cross a trench, go back by two logs or one lilypad, and jump off the side of the lilypad or log. |
| Ben Weatherall | Reach 85% of your high score while playing as The Dark Lord. |
| Best in Show | Eat lots of food while playing as any of the dog characters. It won’t unlock immediately – just keeping going until it does. |
| Big Fancy Pig | Collect six green chips while playing as Blue. |
| Bones | Collect one of each fossil type while playing as the Palaeontologist – Head, Neck, Body, Leg, and Tail. |
| Blinky | Get crushed by Pac-Man while playing as Inky, Clyde, Pac-Chicken, or Pinky. |
| Cai Shen | Collect 20 red envolopes by playing as one of Fortune Chicken, Fire Monkey, The Three Deities, Xi, New Year’s Doll, Hot Pot, or the Chinese Monster. |
| Cat Lady | Eat nine yellow fish while playing as any cat character. |
| Chinese Monster | Catch up to the Chinese Monster while playing as the New Year’s Doll. |
| Clown | While playing as The Hand, collect between 10-15 coins. |
| Clyde | Consume seven ghosts in one power pallet while playing as Pac-Man. |
| Coconut Water | Collect five coconut waters in one run while playing as a Tourist. |
| Crab | While playing as any character, get a score of 40 and swipe left and right in grass, sand or snow 50 times in a single run. |
| Dragon Rider | Play as Snow King for seven runs. |
| Drop Bear | Get killed by Drop Bear while playing as any Australian update character. |
| Gingerbread Man | After dying multiple times as The Wolf, the Gingerbread Man will appear. Jump on him when he does. |
| Gifty | Charge into the Christmas Tree while playing as the Festive Chicken. |
| Halfling | Jump into eight gold rings across multiple runs while playing as any New Zealand update character. |
| Hipster Whale | Jump on Hipster Whale if he appears instead of a log. |
| Iceberg | Dunk all Arctic characters into the river. |
| Inky | Reach 3,000 points while playing as Pac-Man across your lifetime score. |
| Leprechaun | Collect a four-leaf clover while playing as any character from the UK/ Ireland update. |
| Marmalade | Collect the following items in a single run: Sock, Ball, Donut, Floppy Disk, and Dice. |
| Matt Hall | Reach 85% of your high score while playing as Lucky Cat. |
| Merlady | While playing as a non-ocean character, cross a river, before jumping back over two logs and fall off. |
| Michael Boom | Find the rocket truck and crash into it. |
| Moon Rock | While playing as a space character, get hit by a rock on a meteor flow run. |
| Nessie | While playing as a UK/ Ireland update character, stop by a river and wait for Nessie to show up, then jump on it. |
| Piffle Ball | Collect piffle items across multiple runs until you unlock Piffle Ball. |
| Pineapple | While playing as a Piffle update character, wait on a road for a truck to drive past with a pineapple on it. Get hit by this truck. |
| Pinky | While playing as Pac-Man, collect a cherry. |
| Pro Gamer | Reach an actions per minute score of at least 150, and score 80 points while playing as a character from the Korean update. |
| Purple Bloop | While playing as a grablin character, beat another that is at least level 35. |
| Phone Box | Discover the phone box while playing as a character from the UK/ Ireland update. This is indicated by a ringing noise. |
| Robot Dog | Track down a yellow duck while playing as any space character. |
| Rugby Player | While playing as the Squirrel, collect four nuts and a rugby ball. |
| Seal | While playing as the Polar Bear on a snowy level, complete all five trash-collecting missions. |
| Space Walker | While playing as any space character, jump on the Hipster Whale. |
| The King of All Cosmos | Collect as many items as you can while playing as The Prince of All Cosmos. |
| The Princess of All Cosmos | Collect as many items as you can while playing as The Prince of All Cosmos. |
| The Queen of All Cosmos | Turn items into rainbows while playing as The King of All Cosmos. |
| The Totem | Jump on the totem floating downstream while playing as Ida, a Crow, or The Storyteller. |
| Too Much Candy | While playing as any character, jump into a brown river. |
| Waffles | If you see a rainbow pig turn into a waffle, jump into it to unlock Waffles. This can happen at random. |
| Yeti | Get yourself killed by a Yeti throwing snowballs while playing as a character from the Christmas update. |
Crossy Road Cheat Code FAQs
©Screenshot from Crossy Road.
Why Are There No Cheat Codes For Crossy Road?
Unfortunately, most mobile games don’t have any cheat codes for a variety of reasons. There are plenty of characters that you can buy with microtransactions, and it’s likely that any cheat code would put that monetization strategy in jeopardy.
Do Promo Codes For Crossy Road Work?
No. Even for character unlocks, you won’t find any type of promo code for free stuff in Crossy Road. Hipster Whale has never done this type of giveaway, and at this point it’s unlikely the studio ever will.
Be wary of any site looking to offer you any sort of Crossy Road codes.
Will There Be Codes For Crossy Road In The Future?
No. The game has been out for over a decade, and Hipster Whale hasn’t added any form of code so far, be it cheat codes or promo codes. It would be a dramatic change in direction if the studio was to add them now.
The image featured at the top of this post is ©Screenshot from Crossy Road..