Prepare to be Stumped
Written: Jan 10 '06 (Updated Jan 11 '06)
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Pros: Multi-level challenges for kids and adults alike; cute design; quiet travel toy.
Cons: Magnetic feature is more annoying than useful. Small pieces are easily lost.
The Bottom Line: Another multi-level brainteaser from ThinkFun: engaging fun for math-minded kids and adults.
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| theeye's Full Review: River Crossing: The Perilous Plank Puzzle |
If you've been following my recent series of game reviews, you know that my five-year-old son is hopelessly addicted to solitaire brainteaser puzzle games. Particularly the deviously clever puzzles designed by the brilliant folks at ThinkFun (previously known as Binary Arts). It all started when we picked up Rush Hour, Jr. and, with the sort of single-minded determination of which only an obsessed five-year-old is capable, he barreled his way through all forty puzzles in two days.
I immediately went on-line to buy the grown-up version of Rush Hour, a few expansion packs and several of their other puzzle games aimed at the eight-year-old and up set. I am now the proud owner of half a dozen (and counting) of their puzzles -- and I expect to be posting more rave reviews here soon. The game designers at ThinkFun have a particular talent for taking a clever puzzle idea, dressing it up in a cute, kid-friendly theme and building multi-level challenges to provide hours on end of engaging fun for kids and adults alike. River Crossing: The Perilous Plank Puzzle is no exception.
Like A Bridge Over Troubled Water
Like many of ThinkFun's puzzles, River Crossing is really forty puzzles in one. The game comes with forty large rectangular cards, each representing one puzzle. The challenges are color-coded and numbered in order of increasing difficulty: ten each in the Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced and Expert levels. Each card depicts an alligator-infested, roiling river which you must successfully traverse by laying plastic 'planks' between the tree stumps that conveniently protrude from the river surface. The planks come in three lengths and the stumps are placed on a square grid in the river bed: each card features a pattern of circular holes into which plastic tree stumps are placed. An initial configuration of planks is also indicated on the card; one plank will always begin in a position accessible from the starting river bed, while others may be parked between stumps in the middle of the river.
In keeping with the theme of the game, a small plastic Hiker figure is provided. The Hiker contains a magnet and can be used to lift and move the planks, which are likewise magnetized. The Hiker begins on the tree stump at the near river bank and can walk along a plank to the next tree stump. Once standing on a tree stump, he may lift one adjoining plank, optionally carry it with him as he walks along another plank and place it down again -- if there is another tree stump at the correct distance from him. He can never jump from one tree stump to another; he can never carry more than one plank at a time; and he can only put a plank down if it fits exactly between the stump he is standing on and another stump.
Ease your Mind?
In the Beginner challenges, the Hiker's route is fairly straightforward. He walks to the end of a plank, picks it up, carries it the length of the next plank, then places it down. Rinse, repeat -- until you reach the opposite bank. Couldn't be easier.
But once you get past the first few challenges, you'll find you need to do some careful planning to avoid being stranded in the middle of the river with a plank that isn't the right length to get you to another stump. And the path you take will become increasingly circuitous as you wend your way around trying to get yourself to just the right spot, with just the right length plank in hand. A single wrong decision can doom the enterprise; even the experienced puzzle solver will find himself resetting the challenge several times before figuring out a key move to avoid disaster.
If you'd like to try it out yourself, check out the link footnoted below for an on-line version of River Crossing, offering two beginner and two intermediate challenges to give you a taste for the game. But remember that the advanced and expert levels, not represented on-line, will be significantly more mind-bending.
Equipping Yourself for the Trip
ThinkFun's games typically feature appealing and well-designed equipment in addition to an intriguing concept. River Crossing largely succeeds in this area, though I do have a few quibbles with the physical design.
The magnetic Hiker is a cute and clever device for making manifest the rules of the game, which might otherwise be a bit difficult to grasp. But when it comes to actually grasping the planks, I find that the Hiker isn't terribly helpful. This is a brain-teaser, after all, not a test of fine motor skills and lifting and moving those thin planks with a relatively weak magnet is inefficient at best and rather annoying after a while. Once you've got the hang of the rules, you'll likely toss the Hiker in the bag and start moving the planks by hand. It's faster, easier and lets you focus on the strategic elements of what is, after all, a mathematical puzzle at heart.
Like many of ThinkFun's designs, River Crossing comes packaged with a brightly colored, drawstring bag which accommodates the playing board, planks, tree stumps and the set of forty cards. For this game, though, I rather wish they had followed the design they used in Hoppers, building a storage drawer into the game board itself. River Crossing is a great travel game and I'd be happier if the pieces were more securely stored during play to minimize the possibility of losing pieces or bending the cards.
Crossing Over from Kid to Adult
The suggested age range for River Crossing, as for most of ThinkFun's puzzles, is eight to adult. My five-year-old son, who is admittedly more the puzzle addict than most kids his age, enjoys playing this game, but clearly prefers Rush Hour, Jr. and Roadside Rescue. That's undoubtedly due, in part, to the kid-appeal of the vehicle theme, but I also believe that River Crossing does require a somewhat more sophisticated level of conceptualizing. I would recommend that younger kids, in particular, start off with one of the other two puzzles and try this one only if you find they enjoy and are able to master the others.
Adults who enjoy solving puzzles might well want to pick this one up themselves, though this is one puzzle that clearly calls for a computerized implementation. (Unfortunately, I am not aware of any on-line implementation of advanced challenges for this game.) If you do find the game engaging, you'll probably want to pick up River Crossing 2, ThinkFun's more advanced version, featuring challenges in the Grand Master category.
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Additional information and resources:
Manufacturer's product page: http://www.thinkfun.com/PRODUCT.ASPX?PageNo=PRODUCT&Catalog=By Category&Category=1MULTI&ProductId=7020
The ThinkFun philosophy and history of the company: http://www.thinkfun.com/ABOUT.ASPX?PageNo=ABOUT#about
Play River Crossing online: http://www.thinkfun.com/RIVERCROSSING.ASPX?PageNo=RIVERCROSSING
Update: I found another on-line implementation of the game here: http://www.clickmazes.com/planks/ixplanks.htm#p1
Other puzzle games from ThinkFun: Rush Hour, Jr., Roadside Rescue, Hoppers
Multiplayer games for kids and adults alike:
Four Children's Card Games, Aquarius, Fluxx, King's Table (A Viking Game), The Game of Chips, Kill
Dr. Lucky, DuelMasters, Monopoly, Loco!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 10
Type of Toy: Game
Age Range of Child: Whole Family
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Epinions.com ID:
theeye
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Location: New York, NY (it's a hell of a town!)
Reviews written: 66
Trusted by: 166 members
About Me:
Company president, math geek, first time mom at 39, epinion addict. Sleep? Not lately.
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