A solo puzzle game to put your brain in gridlock. One of our absolute all-time favorites here at MudPuddles. Read our Expert Pick Review to find out why Rush Hour makes traffic jams fun!

It’s not often that gridlock can be fun, but Rush Hour tuns traffic jams into an addictive puzzle game for anyone with a brain and fingers (that means everyone, including you). With 40 included puzzle cards ranging from “Beginner” to the fiendishly-challenging “Expert”, and several available expansion sets, you’ll find yourself stuck in Rush Hour for hours. You never thought that would sound exciting, did you?

A brain-bending puzzle game

You can try out a few sample Rush Hour puzzles right now by clicking the image above. (Requires the free Flash player)

The gist of the game is this: You must guide the red car out of the traffic jam. The color-coded cars are arranged on a grid in a different pattern for each card, so each challenge is different. You can move any of the cars forward and back on the grid, but they can’t turn or move sideways. Your goal is to clear a path to the exit for your red car.

The best part of Rush Hour is how it develops problem-solving skills. A careful mind will help you to victory, but you’ll have to develop new strategies with each challenge. The most important skill you’ll learn is to break a goal down into discreet steps, then execute them to achieve your overall plan. Turns out that’s a useful skill in life as well, but while playing Rush Hour it’s just having fun playing the game.

Our experience

We’ve been selling Rush Hour at MudPuddles for more than 10 years, and it remains an absolute favorite, both of our experts and our customers. We use Rush Hour to help schools develop puzzle curriculums. We show it to our home schoolers because it’s a unique and engaging tool for developing the mind. Countless kids and grown-ups have left our store with Rush Hour and come back later to tell us how much they love it.

I can personally tell you I love Rush Hour. I’m a grown-up and I still play it all the time (and I’ve played all the expansion packs, too). When my mom first gave it to me when I was 12, she had to pry it out of my hands at 2 am on a school night.

The story behind Rush Hour

ThinkFun, the company behind Rush Hour, are masters of mind-stretching games, and Rush Hour is their most successful puzzle game of all time. Nob Yoshigahara teamed up with the geniuses at ThinkFun in 1995, using Nob’s traffic puzzle grid and combining it with ThinkFun’s progressive card challenge system and knack for clever style and feel.

There are tons of knock-offs, but Rush Hour is the original, and remains our experts’ favorite. The plastic cars are shaped to be easy to grab and move across the board, and small notches in the grid let the cars slide perfectly into place. A convenient drawer in the board holds all 40 challenge cards, and the game comes with a handy carrying bag so you can take Rush Hour with you on trips and not worry about losing pieces.

Our Recommendation

Rush Hour is one of our all-time favorite toys, a great game for trips, lessons, and quiet moments of mental exercise. Our highest recommendation for puzzle-minded kids ages 8 and up, including grown-ups.

1 player • Ages 8+

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