Rocket Hop

What is Rocket Hop?

Rocket Hop is a free 3D road crossing game that runs in your browser. Tap to hop forward, swipe to step sideways or back, and get as far as you can across a world that never ends: busy roads full of cars and trucks, rivers you cross on drifting logs and lily pads, and railway lines where a bell rings a moment before a fast train comes through. Every row you reach is a point, and the coins you pick up along the way unlock new characters.

There is more to it than the endless run. Adventure mode has 30 hand-tuned levels across six worlds, Meadow, Desert, City, Snowfields, Volcano and Space, each with its own traffic, platforms and hazards, a finish line to reach and three stars to collect. The Daily run gives everyone the same course for the day, so you can compare scores with friends. Power-ups (a coin magnet, slow motion and a shield) turn up in endless and daily runs, and the whole game is drawn by a small custom 3D engine built for the web, so it starts almost instantly, even on a phone.

How to play Rocket Hop

1. Tap the screen, click, or press the up arrow (or W or Space) to hop forward one row. Swipe left, right or down, or use the arrow keys or WASD, to hop in that direction.
2. Cross roads between the vehicles. Cars, buses and trucks each move at a steady speed along their lane, so watch the gaps and hop when one opens.
3. Rivers can only be crossed on floating logs and rafts or on still stepping stones. Land on one and ride it; fall in the water (or lava, or the void of space) and the run is over. Don't let a log carry you off the edge of the screen.
4. When a railway signal flashes and the bell rings, a train is coming. Wait on the safe side until it has passed.
5. Keep moving forward. The view creeps ahead on its own, and if you fall too far behind it, an eagle swoops down and carries you away.
6. Pick up coins to unlock characters, and stars in Adventure levels for a perfect rating. Your best score, coins and unlocked characters are saved in your browser.

Rocket Hop tips and strategy

• Tap rhythmically rather than as fast as you can: hops are quick, and most deaths come from hopping into a lane one moment too soon.
• Look two lanes ahead before you leave the grass. A safe row in the middle of a long road is a good place to wait for the next gap.
• On rivers, ride a log toward the middle of the screen rather than the edge, and hop to the next platform as soon as it lines up, before the current carries you away.
• The flashing signal and bell give you over a second of warning before a train. Never stop on the tracks.
• Moving sideways on the grass is safe and free. Use it to line up with a gap in the traffic or a log before you hop forward.
• Save the shield for busy roads. It absorbs one hit from a vehicle or train, then blinks for a moment while you get clear.

Six worlds and 30 Adventure levels

Each world changes the scenery, the vehicles and the river crossings. Meadow is the place to learn, with cars, trucks, logs and lily pads. Desert has open jeeps, buses, rafts and long freight trains. The City is crowded with taxis and buses, and its canals are crossed on boats. In the Snowfields you dodge snowmobiles and ploughs and ride drifting ice floes. The Volcano replaces rivers with lava, crossed on rafts of basalt. Space has hover cars and maglev trains, and the rivers are gaps of starry void.

Adventure mode has five levels in each world, each a fixed course with a finish line, so you can practise one until you know it. Every level hides three stars, often in awkward places such as the edge of a road, and collecting all three gives a perfect rating. Finishing the last level of a world opens the next one. In the endless run the worlds come in turn, a new one every 45 rows, so the scenery changes as you get further.

Characters, coins and power-ups

You start as the Chick. Coins collected in any mode are saved and spent in Characters to unlock the Frog, Penguin, Cat, Pig, Fox, Bunny, Panda, Dino, Robot and Unicorn. Three more are earned rather than bought: the Ghost for a score of 100 in the endless run, the Astronaut for a score of 250, and Rocket Bot for finishing the first Adventure world. Characters change only how you look, never how you play, so the game stays fair for everyone.

In endless and daily runs a power-up appears every 40 to 70 rows. The coin magnet pulls in nearby coins for ten seconds, slow motion slows every vehicle, platform and train for six seconds, and the shield saves you from one hit by traffic or a train. The shield does not stop you from falling into water, lava or the void.

How hard does it get?

The endless run starts gently and ramps up over its first 330 rows: traffic gets faster, gaps get shorter, logs get shorter and trains come more often. The view also creeps forward a little faster, so you can wait less. Every course is generated so that a route always exists: there is always an open path through the trees, and still stepping stones always line up with one you can reach. Adventure levels get harder from world to world and level to level, from the gentle first Meadow level to the final level in Space.

Playing on phones, tablets and computers

Rocket Hop is built for touch as much as for a keyboard: tap anywhere to hop forward and swipe in any direction to turn, with no buttons to aim for. Swipes register as soon as your finger moves, not when you let go, so turns feel instant. On a computer, use the arrow keys or WASD, or click to hop. Full screen gives the game the whole screen in portrait or landscape. The game pauses itself if you switch tabs, and P or Escape pauses it by hand.

Rocket Hop FAQ