River Crossing is another award winning puzzle game from Binary Arts. The challenge is again visual perception and spatial awareness. In this offering the player is confronted by a plastic green board that is entirely made up of holes. The puzzles are again presented on cards but this time the cards are much larger and they overlay the green board. Each puzzle contains artwork to represent a river and the aim of the game is to get the explorer across the river using a series of planks. Each puzzle card has a set of holes which match up to the holes in the green board and pegs are placed in these. The set-up of the puzzle is complete by putting in place the required planks and this is depicted through the use of shaded plank lines. There are a total of 5 planks and they come in 3 different sizes. The planks are grooved to neatly slot between the stumps and this design touch is neat. The player can now go about trying to get the explorer across the river. The rules are very simple. The explorer can walk across the planks and once a plank is crossed they can turn around and pick up the plank and position it between new stumps. They can even cross other planks whilst carrying a plank if they wish. The only thing the explorer can never do is jump from one stump to another without the use of a plank and it is physically impossible for two planks to cross one another. The concept is as simple as that but oh so effective. Like Rush Hour there are a total of 40 puzzle cards. At this point there are no expansions on the market but the packaging offers a website where more puzzles can be found for free!

River Crossing is a great puzzle game, and in my experience as a teacher, is more appealing to young children (8-12 year olds) than Rush Hour. One reason for this is that the pieces are very appealing to children. They get to plug stumps into holes and set-up the planks. The explorer and planks have magnets in their underside and this allows the player to pick up the planks as they walk across them if they wish. This feature is very appealing to all ages. The colours and artwork are bright and stimulating, giving the game a certain attraction. Having seen children play both Rush Hour and River Crossing, I have to say that most children find River Crossing less threatening than Rush Hour. This is due to the fact that River Crossing puzzles utilise fewer pieces so each puzzle does not look as cluttered and daunting. However children can have more difficulty with River Crossing when they approach the middle puzzles. It has a tendency to completely stump the player at times and because there are few pieces this can bring progress to a halt. The advantage of Rush Hour is that even when the stage is hard, children can still move the cars about and at least feel like they are achieving something. But really I am splitting straws. This is a great game if puzzles are your thing and with additional puzzles being available at no cost River Crossing makes for great value.