Rather than crossing roads, Crossy Road Castle sees players traversing different castles, level by level, battling bosses and encountering uniquely themed environments in each location. You have three lives per run, and the aim is to get as far through a castle as you can. Every 10 levels there’s a vending machine where you can replenish lives, and every 30 levels there’s a boss. With secret rooms to find throughout each castle, and each run promising a unique combination of levels, Crossy Road Castle is surprisingly addictive.
Players collect coins throughout each run, which can be spent on purchasing hats and characters from a gatcha-esque vending machine between runs. It’s the kind of in-game purchasing that’s totally unnecessary, but highly motivating as you push to get each character.
While the platforming is really simple — you just have to press a direction and jump with X — each castle has its unique mechanics which will make you pause to think about how to complete the level rather than speed-running through. These might be lasers firing at you, springs to help reach different platforms, and even teleportation portals.
Interestingly, for a game focused around the multiplayer aspect, we did find single player much more enjoyable. Multiplayer comes in local and online co-op, with no split-screen. The camera zooms out to be able to fit the players on-screen if they’re in a different part of the room, and if you’re charging ahead of your companions it makes it very hard to see what’s going on. The first person to finish the level “drags” along the other players, so it really feels like there’s no point in them being there. There’s no reward for finishing first, like you would expect of a race, it’s just racing for the sake of it but without actually calling it that. At least in single player you can have eyes on what’s going on directly around you, and there’s no penalty to taking things at your own pace.
Crossy Road Castle is a really fun and addictive game, in our opinion best enjoyed solo as the multiplayer doesn’t add a lot in terms of goals for the individual and instead detracting from the action. Whimsical and cutesy, the aesthetic of Crossy Road Castle is such that it really adds to the overall enjoyment of the game, with its simple but compelling gameplay.
