Night Crossing

Night Crossing

Hop a frog through traffic and a river of drifting logs, where the turtles dive.

Panel: 52x16 · Opened from: the clock's menu, not the rotation

The game

Four bands of moving ground between you and the far bank.

First the road: three lanes, alternating direction. The outer two carry cars
that are quick and short, so they are about picking a gap. The middle lane is
trucks — slow, long, and the only thing on the board you genuinely have to
wait for.

Then the river, where there is no road at all. The only footing is a drifting
log or the back of a turtle, and both carry you sideways while you stand on
them. Drift off the edge of the panel and you are gone.

Four bays wait at the top. Fill all four to finish the round, and every second
round hands you an extra life.

What to watch for

• The turtles dive. A group surfaces, sits, sinks and goes under on a
  cycle. The shells darken a shade before they drop, which is the only warning
  you get — stand on one too long and the splash is yours.
• The trucks. Long enough that there is no threading them, so the middle
  lane is a wait rather than a dash.
• The drain timer down the right-hand edge. It is what stops you waiting
  out the whole board, and it turns amber then red as it empties. Reaching a
  bay refills it.
• The hedge. The gaps between the four bays are not landing spots. Hop
  into one and it counts as a miss.

Controls

• LEFT / RIGHT — step the frog sideways
• SELECT — hop forward
• Gamepad — the D-pad hops in all four directions including the diagonals,
  A hops forward, B backs up

A press while the attract loop is running returns you to the start screen
rather than dropping you into a run already in progress.

Two players

Connect a second gamepad and a second frog joins, in cyan so the two never get
confused. Both share the same four bays and the same round, so it is co-op
rather than a race — and the round ends when both of you are out of lives.

Settings

• Sound effects (on) — hops, splashes, the chime when a bay fills
• Music (on) — a looping bed under the effects
• Announce the score (on) — speaks the score at the end of a game