Road Hopper

Road Hopper is an endless crossing game in a toy world. Everything in it — the hen, the buses, the round-topped trees, the boulders on the verge — is built from soft-edged blocks and lit like a painted model village seen from just above. You hop one tile at a time: tap or press up to go forward, swipe or use the arrows to sidestep, and the world scrolls up towards you the whole way.

The lanes are generated as you go and they get meaner the further you get. Grass is safe but grows thick with trees. Roads carry cars, vans, buses and the occasional police car, each lane at its own speed and in its own direction, and the gaps between them close the longer you survive. A railway flashes its warning signal a second and a half before a train comes through at twenty tiles a second. Rivers have to be crossed on floating logs that carry you sideways, and on lily pads that sink under you after a moment, so a river is always a question of timing rather than nerve. The generator checks every lane it builds against the tiles you could actually be standing on, so there is always a way through — but not always a comfortable one.

Coins lie in little streams across the lanes and buy new characters: a pug, a frog, a robot, an astronaut, a dragon, a penguin and a cactus, each with its own hop and its own fidget. Sit still or go backwards for too long and an eagle takes an interest. Play Endless for a best distance, Daily Road for a date-seeded world and one run a day with a streak, Time Trial for sixty seconds of pure distance, or split the screen for a two-player race to lane fifty. The time of day rolls from morning to sunset to night every hundred lanes, headlights and all. Your best, your coins and your unlocked characters are saved in your browser. Press P to pause, M to mute, R to retry.