We've all seen those team building activities where teams need to lay planks between posts and get everyone from one end to the other. That is the gist of Thinkfun's River Crossing Jr. Players need to maneuver their hiker token either across the river or to rescue a cat and get back it back to shore. River Crossing Jr. is a single player solitare game for children ages 6-8.
Let's Play The setup is easy. Place one of the 40 cards over the game board. Where there are holes in the card players put in posts and then place the planks as indicated by the shadow on the card. The hiker token can carry one plank at a time and can only move by walking along the planks suspended by the posts.
The game is fairly easy to understand, and after I showed my 6 year old once she was ready to play on her own. It was then that we discovered some of the quirks of the game. The player token is magnetic, as are the planks. So, as you slide your hiker along the board the plank gets stuck to his or her shoes. It is simple enough to pull the plank off and replace it, but it definitely interrupts the flow of the game. You actually just end up hopping your hiker from post to post and moving the boards after. It would be much better if the token had extended magnetic arms to actually hold a plank as it slid across those in place on the board.
The cards range from extremely easy to challenging for an adult. The easy ones are good for teaching kids how to play and letting them feel some success. But with only 20 cards for each puzzle type, it doesn't take long before the puzzles get too hard for the 6-8 recommended age range. I think it would have been better to either make this a river crossing game or a cat rescue game, but with both there just aren't enough cards.
A solution is provided for each game, but don't expect a child to be able to read them. They are written in code and not easy to interpret, but doable for an adult. I actually like that, since it isn't easy for kids to cheat. If they want to win they are going to have to figure it out.
Final Thoughts Overall this is a cute game, but there is a lot of room for improvement. The magnetic hiker token and planks do more to slow down and confuse game play than help it along. More cards focused on one puzzle type would provide more play options at each of the four difficulty levels. Once Seven solved the easy and mid range cards this game ended up in the back of the closet, seldom played, but it was fun enough while it lasted.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2008 Shopping.com, Inc.