Crossy Road Castle from Hipster Whale is a colorful co-op, cross-platform arcade platformer now on Nintendo Switch. Learn more in our Crossy Road review!

 

Crossy Road Castle from Hipster Whale is a colorful co-op, cross-platform arcade platformer now on Nintendo Switch. It’s a sequel to Crossy Road, a game that was originally released in 2014 for mobile, playing on the old joke: “Why did the chicken cross the road?” Crossy Road Castle was previously available only on Apple Arcade – launching back in 2020 – and it’s now making the jump to consoles. Your task is simple: survive! You’ll be thrown into a procedurally generated tower and will need to work along with the other players to reach the top. And yes, you can indeed play this one on your own, but the more, the merrier, right?

You’ll control the character of your choice by using the left analog stick or the D-Pad as you jump with the A or B buttons to avoid obstacles or hazards. In classic platforming fashion, you can defeat enemies by jumping on top of them. Press the X button to open up the emoticons menu so that you can express yourself during local or online multiplayer sessions. Make your way up the tower, and you’ll eventually reach a boss fight! You have three lives, so be sure to pay attention to its movement and attack patterns so that you can be ready to strike when a window opens.

 

What will you find along the way? Things will start easy enough with a handful of rooms that will allow you to get the hang of things since there won’t be any hazards to worry about. You’ll then run into cannons that will shoot you in the direction that the arrow on them is pointing. There will also be enemies on the ground or in the air to deal with. The always classic and deadly spikes will also be introduced. You will find colored switches that can be pressed to remove blocks or make sets appear for their matching color. Then, those switches will have a timer that will make those blocks disappear once the countdown is over. Crumbling platforms will force you to play as fast as possible. There are also some bottomless pits here and there!

You can earn coins and tokens as you play the game. Obtain 500 coins and 50 tokens to try your luck at a pair of prize machines. These will reward you with, for example, six different characters to unlock, 12 hats to find, and stickers for you to unlock in Unihorse Castle. There will also be special secret gems for you to grab, which can be found by entering the secret doors. Play some more to unlock additional settings, such as Construction Tower, Creepy Carnival, The Great Treehouse, or Space Station 115, to name some examples. If you want to 100% the game, then you’ll need to unlock 60 characters, obtain 102 hats, grab 149 stickers, and find 50 secret gems in total.

Once you’ve played Crossy Road Castle 3 times, you’ll unlock Challenge Events. These will establish sets of challenges for you to complete as you work on beating groups of rooms as fast as possible. Grab a coin to lower the timer by a single second. Defeat an enemy to lower your time by half a second. Some of these challenges include crumbling 50 floors, bopping 75 enemies, or collecting 3,500 coins. If you complete these challenges, you’ll be rewarded with a bunch of coins or a bundle of tokens. Challenges will rotate each day, so you’ll have to be fast if you want to claim your rewards!

Crossy Road Castle is a colorful co-op, cross-platform arcade platformer that has now made the jump from Apple Arcade to consoles. You’ll be working your way up a procedurally generated tower, either on your own or with up to four players in local or online co-op, thanks to the game’s cross-platform support. Crossy Road Castle lands today on Nintendo Switch with a $19.99 price tag.

Disclaimer
This Crossy Road Castle review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by Hipster Whale.