This article was written for ThinkFun’s Smart Play Blog!  Find it and their other great articles: here

Recently I was on the ThinkFun website and saw the big ad for the iPad and iPhone Rush Hour apps saying “Now even more ways to play in traffic!”  This made me chuckle.  Why? Because I live in Chicago, where despite a state-wide ban, 80% of drivers are txting, emailing or talking on their cell phones while driving so really we don’t need more ways to “play in traffic.”  But you know who could use an app like that….our car mates.  Yes, the husbands, co-workers and friends who play backseat driver and insist they know a “better way” out of the gridlock by taking some crazy side street that has potholes large enough to swallow small children and Smart cars.

And youngsters aren’t much better.  Teens complain, kids get antsy; the longer the car ride is, the less pleasant it gets.  But I have a solution.  Fork over your iPhones.  Yes, that’s right, hand them over (since you shouldn’t be using them anyway).  This could be a win-win for all drivers and passengers.  Drivers get to listen to the music, talk radio or audio book they want without hearing how long the ride is or how the lane next to them is moving faster.  And while the drivers are focusing on the road, the passengers get to work their own magic and move the little red car from the impossible cluster of cars in the Rush Hour app.  And who knows, maybe the gridlock everyone is experiencing could bring us closer together.

To find out more about the new RushHour iPhone AND iPad apps, click here.

Rush Hour is a great brain-teaser/puzzle.   The game consists of 15 cars and trucks that block your little red “fancy” car from getting off the grid.  To play you select one challenge card and set up a little traffic jam.  The goal is for you to get your car off the grid and it may take quite a bit of shuffling the other cars back and forth to make this happen.  The puzzles range from very easy to pretty challenging and the folks at ThinkFun were kind enough to include answers on the back of each card in case you are stumped.  There are also add-on packs that come with new cars, like a white stretched limo and a yellow taxi, that create all new puzzles so you have something to tackle after you’ve managed to conquer the forty it comes with!

Since it was released in 1996 more than 5 million copies of Rush Hour have been sold and it can be purchased in 32 countries! Rush Hour is used in schools to teach kids critical thinking skills including problem solving and strategy and this February ThinkFun is planning another Rush Hour iPhone Contest in which they will donate copies of Rush Hour to needy schools in the winner’s name!  (for more info: click here)

Rush Hour was invented by Nob Yoshigahara, a famous Japanese puzzle inventor who brought the concept to ThinkFun (then Binary Arts) back in 1995.  At the time is was called “Tokyo Parking” and instead of being a traffic jam, it was a hellish parking lot.  (Frankly, those seem pretty similar to me living in Chicago – our expressways at rush hour always look like one long parking lot!)  Anyway, ThinkFun improved upon Nob’s concept by placing it in a nice grid with cars that easily slid back and forth.  They also changed the name from Tokyo Parking to Rush Hour and insisted on keeping the message positive.  Instead of being angry at the terrible parking skills of the other cars, players see getting out of the tangled mess of rush hour traffic a challenge.  And with some of the more difficult cards – it really is!

In addition to the physical Rush Hour game, if you own an iPhone you can get the Rush Hour app that was released right before Christmas.  For less than a buck you can get over 2500 puzzles!  Quite a deal.  (And don’t be fooled by any of the similar apps – you really want the official Rush Hour one!)

So despite not really being a “game” this puzzle gets high marks with the game testers here at The Game Aisle.  It’s a great product to enjoy when no one wants to play any games against you!

Rush Hour Stats:
$15-$25 at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Target.com, and many more.  Other versions like a Railroad, Safari and Junior are available.  Add-on packs will run you about $8 for 1 new car and 40 new challenges.
1 Player
Time depends on level and skill
Ages 8 and up

I’d bet that if you were in a room with a million people and asked “does anyone like reading directions?” not a single person would raise their hand.  Okay so no one in their right mind would take that bet, it would be like trying to win a raffle when you didn’t bother to buy a ticket.   Seriously though, directions are the necessary evil that comes before the fun.  Whether you’re learning how to use your new super-complex digital camera or learning the commands for your cool new Robosapien so you can tease your dog, directions stink.  I just want to get to the fun part.

Apparently, I’m not the only one who has come to this realization because there are games out there that have gotten you half the way with their name alone.  A great example is ZINGO.  From the –INGO you can guess that the game’s got some bingo in it, right?  But wait, there’s more, those smart cookies at ThinkFun even put pictures on the back of the packaging so when you open the box, there’s only about a paragraph of actual directions to read.  So 20 seconds of reading, 3 twist ties to remove and you’re ready to play!  Outstanding, right?

All of this would be for naught if the game wasn’t good, but it really is top notch.  And while the ZINGO box suggests it’s for 4-8 year old, I know a couple parents who don’t mind playing it over and over and over.  Sure beats some board games that leave you literally bored after a couple games.

So you’ve already got that it’s bingo, but it’s bingo with a zing.  (Actually their tag line, I ripped that off.)  Forget numbers and tokens, this bingo is played with little tiles adorned with pictures but the real “wow factor” is the extremely addictive mechanism that spits out the ZINGO tiles.  It’s kind of like the “chook chook” old credit card copying machines, but with each “chook-chook” it magically spits out two tiles.  It’s not the first time ThinkFun has used the “chook-chook” machine, it’s also in their fast-fire adult word game Smart Mouth which I also highly recommend to people looking for a fast-paced word game.  But back to ZINGO…

So now that you’ve spent the 90 seconds to read/view the directions, unpack the game and fall in love with the “chook-chook” machine, it’s time to play.  Once the machine has been “chook-chooked” and tiles have been spit out, players quickly scan their cards and yell out any matching objects.  The first person to holler out “frog,” “ghost” or whatever image is on both the tile and their board wins the tile and is one step closer to covering their board and winning.  Simple, right?

A nice added feature – as if ThinkFun hasn’t already done enough for us thus far – is that there are two levels of play, one for youngsters so it’s a little less competitive and one for older kids who want a more exciting game.  The ZINGO cards of the easier version have fewer duplicate images so there’s not as much of a rush to skim the images on your card for a tile-card match.  I will admit, the easy version is really for the kiddies and it’s the competitive version I’m a fan of, but the 4 year olds of the world will appreciate the extra time.  And either way, I appreciate that I can spend more time playing and less time reading the directions.

ZINGO stats:

• ~$15 at Target, Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com
• 2-4 players
• ~5 min.
• Ages 4-8 (parents might find it fun too)