🎯 Objective

You control J.A.C.K. (Jump Around Cricket King), a brave little cricket who must hop from the safety of the curb, across a busy road and a raging river, to claim all five lily pad homes at the top of the board before time runs out. Clear a board and the next one gets faster, busier, and stranger.

🎮 Controls

• Arrow Keys or WASD — hop one square up, down, left, or right.
• On-screen D-pad — appears automatically on touch devices.
• Gamepad — D-pad or left stick to hop, Start/Select to pause. Works alongside the keyboard and on-screen D-pad.
• Esc, P, or a gamepad's Start/Select button — pause / resume the game.
• Each hop takes a brief moment to animate — time your next hop after J.A.C.K. lands.

🏆 Scoring

• +10 points for every new row of forward progress (hopping back and forth doesn't pay twice).
• +50 × Level for safely filling an open lily pad home.
• Time bonus — remaining seconds × 10, awarded the moment you reach a home.
• +1,000 × Level bonus for filling all five homes and clearing the board.
• +250 points for grabbing a bonus firefly icon on the median strip.
• Extra life awarded automatically every 20,000 points.

❤️ Lives & Losing a Life

You start with 3 lives. A life is lost if J.A.C.K.:

• Is squashed by a car, taxi, truck, bus, or police car.
• Falls into open water (steps into the river with nothing underfoot).
• Rides a log or turtle off the edge of the screen.
• Lands on a diving turtle just as it submerges.
• Touches a snake riding a log, or the head of a hidden alligator.
• Reaches the top row anywhere that isn't an open lily pad.
• Runs out of time before reaching a home.

Lose all your lives and it's GAME OVER — but your high score and unlocked levels are saved automatically.

🚧 Hazards You'll Meet

• The Road: cars, taxis, trucks, buses, and (Level 3+) fast police cars, each lane moving at its own speed and direction.
• The River: logs and turtles are safe to ride — but turtles occasionally dive, snakes (Level 3+) slither along their log, and alligators (Level 4+) disguise themselves as logs except for their very real head.
• Currents: riding a log or turtle carries you sideways — don't get swept off the edge of the board.

📈 Level Progression

Filling all five lily pad homes clears the board and advances you to the next level. Every new level increases traffic and current speed, shortens safety margins, and introduces tougher hazards. Boards also rotate through increasingly wild visual themes: Swamp Morning, Neon Night Highway, Desert Heat, Storm River, Volcano Crossing, Frozen Tundra, and Space Station, then repeat at even higher speed.

⚙️ Difficulty Levels

• Cricket Cadet (Easy): slower lanes, 60-second timer.
• Cricket Scout (Normal): the classic balanced challenge, 45-second timer.
• Cricket Champion (Hard): faster lanes, 35-second timer, tougher hazards a level early.
• Nightmare Hop (Cricket King): maximum speed, 25-second timer, every hazard unlocked from the start.

Jump Around Cricket King

Jump Around Cricket King (affectionately known as J.A.C.K.) is a free, browser-based, lane-crossing arcade game built in the classic style of early-1980s road-and-river hoppers. Guide a small cricket across traffic and turbulent water to reach home — no quarters required.

Built for the Arcade Wing

J.A.C.K. lives in the Arcade section of Acme Digital Mall4U, alongside other free-to-play browser games. It runs entirely in your browser: no downloads, no plugins, no account needed. Your high scores and unlocked levels are stored locally on your own device.

How it's made

The whole game — graphics and sound — runs from a single HTML file using Canvas and the Web Audio API. Every sound effect is synthesized live in the browser; there are no external audio or image files to load.

Feedback

Found a bug, have an idea for a new hazard, or just want to brag about your score? Visit the Contact page.

Last updated: August 8, 2026

Overview

Jump Around Cricket King (J.A.C.K.), part of the Acme Digital Mall4U Arcade, is designed to be played without creating an account and without sending your personal information anywhere.

What we store — and where

• Local browser storage only. High scores, your highest level reached per difficulty, mute preference, and last-selected difficulty are saved using your browser's localStorage, directly on your device.
• This data never leaves your device — the game does not contact any server while you play.
• Clearing your browser's site data will erase your saved scores and progress.

What we do NOT collect

• No account, email, or personal identifiers.
• No analytics, tracking pixels, or advertising cookies.
• No location data or device fingerprinting.
• No in-game purchases or payment information.

Contact form data

The Contact page opens your own email client with a pre-filled message — we don't collect or store what you send.

Children's privacy

J.A.C.K. is a general-audience arcade game that collects no personal information from any player, including children.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, this page will be updated and the date above will change.

This policy describes the game as shipped. It is provided for transparency and is not a substitute for legal advice.

Get in touch

Questions, bug reports, or ideas for the next hazard? Send a note — this opens your own email client with the message pre-filled.

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