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Are You Tired of Excessive Screen Time, But Sometimes Are Just Too Busy to Play?
After this brutal winter, and as a result, excessive Netflix time, we are desperate for games, puzzles, crafts, or anything to shut the screens off. But sometimes play has to wait while I do all the things that parents have to do during the day. A great idea is to have a basket of independent play games at the ready, and Rush Hour Jr. is a must-have for that stash.
At this year’s Toy Fair, I met with a representative from Thinkfun, which is one of my favorite game companies. Their specialty is mind-challenging games. My children have spent plenty of time playing Zingo and What’s Gnu, and it was great to see what WAS new from Thinkfun.
While Rush Hour Jr. isn’t new for Thinkfun, it’s new to my children. Rush Hour Jr. is a one-player game, and while I have two children, they are not always together or interested in playing together. That intrigues me because as an only child, I often had to turn two-player games into one-player games (it sounds sad, but Jenga was still fun!). Rush Hour Jr. is listed for ages 5 and up, but it kept my four-year-old and me interested.
What the Rush Hour Jr. Game Includes
- Traffic grid
- 1 Deck of 40 challenge cards, Easy, Medium, Hard, Super Hard
- 16 Colorful vehicles
- Travel drawstring bag
How Do You Play the Rush Hour Jr Game?
- Decide what level to play.
- Choose a card in that level and place it in the slot on the traffic grid.
- Set up the grid to mirror the configuration shown on the card.
- Slide the cars up and down as if they are driving on a road to make room for the ice cream truck to exit.
- Get that ice cream truck out and you win!
Rush Hour Jr. Game Review
It sounds simple, but that ice cream truck isn’t always easy to get out! We started with the easy cards, and my 4-year-old son had no trouble setting up the Rush Hour Jr. board on his own. After a few turns working with him to show him how to solve the puzzles, he got it! His excitement at solving the puzzles was contagious. My 8-year-old daughter has a lot of logic games in her gifted and talented curriculum, so she came in and jumped up quickly to the hard level. She yelled quite a few times “I GOT IT!” No worries if she hadn’t figured them out though — the solutions are on the back of the card.
Rush Hour Jr. makes no noise, takes no batteries, and is unbreakable. Thanks to the travel bag, I expect this game to come with us to places where we’ll need to wait, like restaurants, doctors’ offices, and in traffic). It reminds me of the logic needed for the Rubik’s Cube. Just be ready to want some ice cream as a reward for solving the puzzles!
