Cross the Road is an original browser game about crossing traffic by reading it. The board is a fixed 9 columns by 11 rows: the bottom row is the start, four traffic lanes above it push vehicles across one cell at a time, the middle row is safe ground where nothing can kill you, four river rows above that carry rafts you have to stand on, and the top row is hedge apart from three alcoves. On a phone in portrait the whole board fits on one screen; in landscape the page has to be scrolled to see all of it, and only screen mode puts the whole board on one screen. The design choice that sets this one apart is that the danger is written on the board rather than left to your reflexes: before any traffic cell is taken, it lights up with a red arrow, stepping onto a lit arrow always gets you hit, and there is no switch anywhere that turns the arrows off — which cell to take is something you can settle by looking. A level is three creatures delivered, every crossing is timed on its own — 30 seconds on level 1, shorter after that, settling at 20 seconds from level 6 — and a run is 3 lives: a collision, the water, being carried off the screen by a raft and the timer running out each cost one.

A row of traffic, a row of water, and a handful of clear cells under your feet. You watch the board, count the beat, and shuffle up one cell when you are sure. This is the screen people crowded round in the arcades: no tutorial, no save, and whether you got across came down to your eyes. Learning it is not getting faster — it is noticing that the answer was drawn on the grid the whole time.

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【街】 The coin arcade · 1988–2000 →

1. 01

   Tap anywhere in the game area to begin. No sign-up and no download.

2. 02

   On a phone, tap the middle of the board to move forward one row and tap either side to step across one column; you can also swipe up to go forward and swipe left or right to step across. A tap is one step. Hold your finger down and keep sliding and every cell's worth of distance you cross commits another step, and changing direction mid-slide — up and then right — counts too. Swiping down does nothing at all.

3. 03

   On a keyboard use the arrow keys or W, A, S and D for all four directions — stepping backwards exists on the keyboard only, touch has no such direction. Esc or P pauses at any time.

4. 04

   Check the target cell before you move: a cell with a red arrow on it is about to be taken by a vehicle and stepping in always gets you hit, while a cell with no arrow always leaves you time for one more move — so land on a cell with no arrow.

5. 05

   On the river you have to travel on the rafts. Step onto one and it carries you along, so when it reaches the outermost column move up a row rather than letting it carry you off the screen.

6. 06

   Deliver three creatures into the three alcoves on the top row to clear the level. The timer bar sits in the upper half of the screen and turns amber with a hatch pattern from 25% remaining.

Read the arrows, not the vehicles: a lit arrow is what tells you a cell is going to be taken, so pick your next cell from the arrows rather than from where a vehicle happens to be sitting now. Stepping sideways is cheaper than forcing it: every lane gap is at least 3 cells wide, so standing on safe ground and sliding across until you are under a gap costs fewer lives than pushing straight into a train. The first step is free: the cell above the start has 4 clear cells ahead of it and is safe for rather less than half a second at the start, so take it without hesitating. Board a raft in the direction you mean to leave: a raft will carry you off the screen eventually, so work out where the next row's raft is before you step on. The outer column is not a dead end — once you are carried there you still have about 0.2 seconds, which is enough to move up a row. Time left is score: +5 for each whole second remaining on arrival, so arriving early is worth more than arriving carefully. Do not farm the safe rows: only the highest row you reached on this crossing counts, however many times you walk back and forth.

How do you play Cross the Road, and what are the controls on a phone and a keyboard?

The goal is to get from the bottom row to the top and deliver three creatures into the three alcoves on the top row. On a phone, tap the middle of the board to move forward one row and tap either side to step across one column; you can also swipe up to go forward and swipe left or right to step across. A tap is one step, and if you hold your finger down and keep sliding, every cell's worth of distance you cross commits another step. Swiping down does nothing. On a keyboard use the arrow keys or W, A, S and D — stepping backwards exists on the keyboard only — and Esc or P to pause. You can mix both at any time; there is no control scheme to pick first.

How do you know which cell a vehicle is about to hit?

By the red arrow on the cell. Before a vehicle takes a cell, that cell lights up with a red arrow, and stepping in always gets you hit. So check that your target cell has no arrow on it, then decide whether to go forward or across. The arrows cannot be turned off and they are only drawn on the traffic rows — the river rows do not have them. Red is used in exactly three places in this game: the arrow, the kill highlight and the cause bar. If you see red, it kills.

How do you avoid falling in the water when crossing on rafts?

Only the rafts hold you up; open water is fatal. The carry is resolved before the danger check, so if a raft is due to move on the very moment you board it, you go with it rather than dropping in. Once a raft has carried you to the leftmost or rightmost column you still have about 0.2 seconds to move up a row, so there is no need to panic. What you really have to avoid is letting a raft carry you off the screen — that counts as drifting out of bounds and costs a life the same way a collision does.

What tips help you get further in Cross the Road?

Four are enough: read the arrows before you land, slide sideways on safe ground until you are under a gap before going up, look at where the next row's raft is before you board, and deliver early rather than carefully. Lane gaps are at least 3 cells wide, so going round to sit under one and then straight up costs fewer lives than pushing head-on into a train, and every whole second left when you arrive is +5, which makes speed its own reward. Only the highest row you reached on this crossing scores, so walking back and forth between two rows earns nothing.

How many levels does Cross the Road have, and how does it get harder?

There is no fixed final level. The first 6 get harder step by step and nothing changes after level 6: lanes speed up from one cell every 0.3 seconds to a little under 0.2, traffic trains grow from 3 cells to 5, the shortest raft shrinks from 4 cells to 2, and the limit on a single crossing drops from 30 seconds to 20. Past level 6 it is pure skill keeping you alive, with no fake endless escalation.

Does getting hit send you back to level 1?

No. Losing a life resets only the current crossing: the creatures already delivered, the level number and every point already scored are all kept, and the creature starts the trip again from the bottom row. Before that the frame freezes for about 0.4 seconds, highlighting only the vehicle that hit you and the cell you were standing in, so you can always see what killed you. A run is 3 lives with no extras along the way, and Play again in the summary panel puts you in a clean run with one tap.

Is there a time limit, and what happens when the timer runs out?

Yes — every crossing is timed on its own, 30 seconds on level 1, settling at 20 seconds from level 6. Running it out costs a life, and reaching an alcove refills it. Leftover time is also score: +5 for each whole second left on arrival, so arriving early is worth more than arriving carefully. From 25% remaining the bar turns amber with a hatch pattern and an exclamation mark, blinking no faster than 2 Hz, and the Flash switch in the pause panel swaps the blink for a steady colour change.