Ravensburger Rivers, Roads & Rails - Children's Game

by Ravensburger

• Each tile has two sides
• Each side contains at most one road, one river, and one rail
• Only two of the tiles are branching
• You can play this game competitively like Dominoes, or cooperatively like a free-form jigsaw puzzle
• Great indoor play

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 13.2 x 1.5 x 9 inches ; 1.5 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00001OX05
• Item model number: MN058-000
• Our recommended age: 5 - 9 years
• Manufacturer recommended age: 5 - 12 years
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #132,721 in Toys & Games (See Top 100 in Toys & Games)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)

Product Description

Amazon.com

Building roads, railroads, and waterways is the object of this cooperative picture-matching game. The 2-inch square tiles have illustrations of the above printed on one side with some railroad stations and harbors, too. Each player draws 10 tiles and sets about matching river to river, road to road and rail to rail. The first to use up all their tiles wins. But this nonreading game is really about cooperation. The different paths and combinations create so many different possibilities that no two paths are alike. --Lynne Sampson

Product Description

Ravensburger Rivers, Roads and Rails

Build a world of rivers, roads and rails. Each card has to connect perfectly to the next to create an intricate network of transportation. Plan ahead, form pathways and be the first to use up all your cards to win the game. It includes three different game variations.

• Product Dimensions: 9 (L) x 2.2 (W) x 13.2 (H)
• Age: 5 to 12 years

See all Product Description

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Most requested game in our household December 12, 2001

By A Customer

Durability: 5.0 out of 5 stars    Educational: 5.0 out of 5 stars    Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

Even the littlest one (3 years old) loves R, R, & R. He doesn't understand the "game" part, but he loves looking at the pieces, and he has figured out how the matching works.
Treating it more like a puzzle than a turn-based game makes it fun for everybody -- you spend as little or as long on it as you want, and then you come back to it later.
Our household challenge is to use all the pieces in as compact a shape as possible. My husband is obsessed with putting together a perfect rectangle. Hasn't happened yet, but he keeps trying!

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars For puzzle lovers November 30, 1999

By A Customer

Durability: 5.0 out of 5 stars    Educational: 4.0 out of 5 stars    Fun: 4.0 out of 5 stars   

Ravensburger products are easy to love because of their high quality. These game tiles (like Ravensburger's puzzle pieces) are thick, colorful with great detail, and wipe clean when you spill on them. I enjoy puzzles and so this is a fun game for me, creating a maze of rivers, roads, and railways that begin and end at houses, bridges, towns and dams. The game can last an overly long time, so my kids don't enjoy it as much.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Educational and fun game March 24, 2000

By A Customer

Durability: 4.0 out of 5 stars    Educational: 5.0 out of 5 stars    Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

This game promotes many educational skills, available to use even with very young children,including matching, visual discrimination, vocabulary building, sequencing and in addition it is a fun game to play turning out different picture representation every time!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A great matching game November 27, 2006

By Stephen Koch

I was able to play this with my 4 year old daughter and 13 year old step-daughter. While it is a little challenging for my youngest (the 5 year old designation is probably correct), we all were able to play on somewhat equal footing. We played in a non-competative fashion but I could see how this game has the potential of being very competative with a bunch of adults. I highly recommmend it as a great family game!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Well made and enjoyable February 23, 2009

By Robert Petkus VINE™ VOICE

Amazon Verified Purchase

Durability: 5.0 out of 5 stars    Educational: 5.0 out of 5 stars    Fun: 4.0 out of 5 stars   

Summary: I'd have given this game 5-stars but it just doesn't have the replay value I had hoped for. My older daughter enjoys this game but it's not her favorite. Nice game.

Quality: As with other Ravensburger games, the game is well-crafted. The pieces are thick cardboard and the edges have not shown any signs of peeling into layers as do many cheap puzzle pieces.

Game play: Simple pattern recognition game. Each player maintains a cache of 10 cards and takes turns adding to an amorphous splay of cards having any combination of a river, road, and/or rail. It's not a competitive game but I'm sure it could be morphed into one. My 3-year old got the concept right away so game play was civil and frustration-free. Takes an average of 15-20 minutes to complete.

Depending on how things pan out, you may need a bit of floor space to accommodate the full deck. Often times roads ended up stretching under the couch and we'd have to shift the whole construction a few feet.

Thoughts: As someone else noted, if there are more than, say, 4 people, there really aren't enough cards in the deck to make for a good game. Also, I would prefer if the game contained more cards with roads/rails/rivers that forked off into a Tee -- it would make the game a little more interesting and space compressed. As it stands there are maybe (2) forked cards in the deck and the resulting construction usually ends up very long.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent game for adults and kids to play together February 29, 2008

By ksz

Durability: 3.0 out of 5 stars    Educational: 5.0 out of 5 stars    Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

My 4 year old son received this game as a Christmas gift, and it's really FUN! It is simple, made of cardboard. It's easy to play for small children, yet involved enough to keep adults interested, too. It has different types of game play as children age or become more proficient at the game. The game is easy, but requires kids to look carefully at the pieces, learn to think strategically, and consider a variety of options as play progresses. It's fun to play for any length of time, which is good for younger kids who don't have a long attention span. My son loves this game, and I have given it to 3 very happy recipients for birthdays since we received it. I definitely intend to purchase more games from this company. I am a former toy buyer and developer, and I really appreciate a great game when I see one!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great game once you get the kids interested! February 11, 2009

By Mitsea

Durability: 5.0 out of 5 stars    Educational: 5.0 out of 5 stars    Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

When my kids first saw this game, they thought it looked boring. They weren't too interested it in when we were explaining the rules. Then they started looking at the pieces and it was like a spark went off, and all they wanted to do was figure out how it went together.

I have three girls ages 3,5, and 11, who all enjoy playing this game. My 3 year old is able to match most pieces, some of the pieces have starts or stops and those throw her off, but she still enjoys the game. We play games every night before bed, and this one is brought out at least once a week. We play it following the rules given, however my girls also enjoy using it as more of a puzzle and building long connecting pieces all over the floor. They will sit and piece it together for an hour or more, and that is a long time for them to play with anything.

This can be a really long game. We limit the game by starting with fewer pieces, or setting a timer and whoever has the fewest pieces when the timer goes off wins.

Ravensburger makes fabulous games and this is no exception. It is a great game to add to your families game night rotation.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful cooperative game for young children January 4, 2010

By E. McDonald

Amazon Verified Purchase

Durability: 4.0 out of 5 stars    Educational: 4.0 out of 5 stars    Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

In this simple but lovely game, players place tiles to connect rivers, roads and train tracks that meander across a picturesque landscape. The game can be played competitively, with each player trying to get rid of his or her tiles first, or cooperatively with everyone trying to put all the tiles together. Although the simple rules mean that even young children can play, learning from the challenge of matching the edges of the pieces, the game's visual appeal makes it enjoyable for older children and even the adults playing along, too. Many (most?) of the pieces are illustrated uniquely, featuring lakes, farms, cityscapes, trains, people... as a child I delighted in discovering the details in the pictures and imagining what it would be like to enter the landscape.

The pieces are sturdy cardboard, plenty durable for normal gameplay use - they would not survive immersion in water or other such extreme conditions, but it's not a fragile game by any means. There are no small pieces that a child could swallow or choke on.

My fond memories of this game from my childhood inspired me to buy it recently for a friend's kindergarten son and his younger sister. They enjoy it as much as I did - and so do his parents!