Rush Hour is a logic game produced by ThinkFun (formerly Binary Arts) that is suitable from about age 6 to adult. It is a one person game.
The game consists of a 6x6 grid of squares, with an exit 2/3 of the way up the right hand side. The whole board is about 6 inches square. The playing pieces are of two types - cars (of size 1x2 squares) and lorries (of size 1x3 squares). One of the cars is "you" (coloured red) and the 11 other cars, together with the 4 lorries, are the traffic jam. The aim? Simple. Find your way out of the traffic.
The game comes with 40 puzzles in four levels of difficulty. Each puzzle is a starting arrangement of the cars and lorries (including your car), and you have to move your car to the exit. All the pieces can only move sideways, or up and down, on the grid, depending on their initial orientation. Cars and lorries can't fly over each other! And by moving your car and the blocking cars and lorries, you have to clear a way for your car to exit.
Let's do an example.
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
|222222222| | | | 66 |
|222222222| | | | 66 |
+----+----+----+----+----+-66-+
| 33 | | | 55 | | 66 |
| 33 | | | 55 | | 66 |
+-33-+----+----+-55-+----+-66-+--
| 33 |111111111| 55 | | 66 The
| 33 |111111111| 55 | | 66 Exit
+-33-+----+----+-55-+----+----+--
| 33 | | | 55 | | |
| 33 | | | 55 | | |
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
| 44 | | | |777777777|
| 44 | | | |777777777|
+-44------+----+----+----+----+
| 44 | |88888888888888| |
| 44 | |88888888888888| |
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
OK, so it's not that clear... but it's the best I can do with ASCII art. 1 is your car - you have to exit the grid. At the moment, you can't move at all as you are blocked in by the other cars and lorries (2, 4 and 7 are 2 squares long and are therefore cars, 3, 5, 6 and 8 are all lorries.) So, the following are the potential first moves.
- Move 2 1, 2 or 3 squares right.
- Move 5 1 square up or down.
- Move 6 1 square down.
- Move 7 1, 2 or 3 squares left.
- Move 8 1 square left or right.
The actual sequence of moves for this game is as follows.
- 2 right 3
- 3 up 1
- 4 up 1
- 8 left 2
- 7 left 3
- 5 down 2
- 6 down 3
- 1 right 4 to the exit
The final layout is like this.
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
| 33 | |222222222| | |
| 33 | |222222222| | |
+-33-+----+----+----+----+----+
| 33 | | | | | |
| 33 | | | | | |
+-33-+----+----+----+----+----+--
| 33 | | | | | 111111111 The
| 33 | | | | | 111111111 Exit
+----+----+----+----+----+----+--
| 44 | | | 55 | | 66 |
| 44 | | | 55 | | 66 |
+-44-+----+----+-55-+----+-66-+
| 44 |777777777| 55 | | 66 |
| 44 |777777777| 55 | | 66 |
+---------+----+-55-+----+-66-+
| 8888888888888| 55 | | 66 |
| 8888888888888| 55 | | 66 |
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
This is quite a simple puzzle, requiring only 8 moves. The later ones may have only 5 or 6 unoccupied squares on the board, and have over 40 moves, with you often appearing to make matters worse before making them better.
And when you have finished all the 40 supplied cards, there's another 40. The first 30 of these are the same level as the last 30 of the original cards, and then there's 10 more "impossible" ones (which are possible, just!) To make things more interesting, there's a new piece as well - a white limousine which is the same size as a lorry. Sometimes it's a blocking piece, and sometimes it's "you".
This game is incredibly simple in concept, but provides a serious challenge for people of any age.