Customer Reviews

ThinkFun River Crossing

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This game seems quite difficult at first, but becomes easier once you realize exactly what the rules allow. My 4 year old and 7 year old kids enjoyed it for a short time, but were unable to grasp the complexities past the first few levels and quickly lost interest (not surprising as this is below the manufacturer's age limit). I'm sure older kids would find this fun.

For adults this game is quite addictive, after a few days I was able to solve all 40 levels. If you look at the inventor's site [...] you will find much harder plank puzzles. However my 4 star rating is mostly because the 40 included cards are just a bit too easy to master.

An "equipment gripe" is that there are exactly the minimum number of plastic "logs" required to cover all games with no extras. We have now lost one of the two shortest logs and over half the puzzles require two of these so these can't be played any more (you can try substituting other items but the real logs fit nicely and have magnets inside them which is quite helpful playing the game). Fortunately ThinkFun offers extra game pieces for a fee (see their web site). I now have River Crossing 2, but without the missing piece I can't really play it.

ThinkFun succeeds once again, with a simple idea... lay down logs to find a path from start to finish across the river. Place your logs carefully, and you'll get where you need to go, but don't get in your own way, and you can't jump over the water. 40 challanges included (plus 40 more in River Crossing 2!), that will keep even adults busy for quite a while.

Highly recommended for those visual / spatial gifted kids, and thier parents ;-) Stores in it's own nylon bag, a plus, since there are more than a few loose pieces.

Carolyn K., webmaster, Hoagies' Gifted Education Page

Another great thinking game from "Think Fun". I belong to a homeschool "strategy labs" group, which is run by a former gifted and talented public school teacher, and she introduced me to Think Fun games.

My children thoroughly enjoy them, and have more patience than I would have expected to try and solve the puzzles.

A previous reviewer said that this game is good for "gifted" children, and I'm sure it is, but I think it is a great game for ANY child who likes to solve puzzles, regardless of their giftedness at them.

I would even buy this game (or perhaps River Crossing Jr, or Rush Hour) for a child who DOESN'T particularly like puzzles, because with some adult encouragement, the child may really enjoy it (thus learning that he/she DOES like puzzles) and improve his ability to think visually and plan several moves ahead - quite a nice bonus.

This game is fun and well designed and I felt was worth the money I paid. It's a good game for killing some time as some of the puzzles take quite a while. The portability is nice as it comes with it's own bag so you can take it anywhere you may be sitting for a while. I felt the only drawback to this game were the levels of difficulty. The cards are divided up into 4 levels of difficulty with each level having 10 puzzles. Unfortunately, I found that levels 1,2, and much of 3 are not very challenging for anyone who is fairly good at logic puzzles. So you're left with about 12-14 really good puzzles. Coming in at (...) though, I feel it's not a waste of money.

We really enjoyed this game. My dad, me and my 4-year-old played together, figuring out solutions. I admit it's a bit hard for my 4-year-old but she will be ready for this eventually ( and in the meantime we can play together). I would buy another one for my 6-year-old niece.
I wish there were replacement pieces as now I am a little apprehensive of losing one of the essential logs included.

Instructions are easy and playing is fun! Highly recommended.

Given to me as a 'joke', but became a hit with all ages during a recent visit to friends in Brazil. In fact, our friend is a child psychologist in Sao Paulo and she indicated that it would be a great tool with her clients. She later reports that it is a big hit in the clinic.

We have replaced the set left in Brazil along with set 2, and have sent River Crossing Jr to our grandchildren.

This is a challenging mental exercise. We need more of these in our times.

The game pieces are very good quality. I found the cards to be challenging. The game was well worth the money.

My 9 year old daughter loves playing this game. As you move on to through the cards, it becomes more and more challenging. Great game!

This is one of the best games around. The box states that it is a single player game but my 10 year old granddaughter and 67 year old husband play this together. They also spend a lot of time playing by themselves and my husband has never liked brain games. There are four skill levels with ten games in each level. This game never gets old because you forget how you did it and therefore, can go back and do them again. It comes with a pouch and is small enough to take anywhere. What a wonderful substitute for TV!

I was labelled as gifted and talented as a child, and am big into games that are truely stimulating. I bought this game for my 11 year old brother for Christmas. I received it yesterday in the mail and was so excited about it, I had to open it. My husband (who doesn't like to play games!) and I played it all night! We would have contests to see who could "beat" the next level! Now I'll have to get another one for my brother, because we are kepping this one! A couple of them really stumped me for a while, but after enough staring at it, I would figure it out. I love games like these, my parents used to get me games like this when I was younger. Set, is one of my favorites. The mensa website has a lot of recommendations for games to challenge you. I am such a huge advocate of educational games like these!