Growing up I loved playing with the Rubik’s Cube, I even had a barrel shaped one that I loved. I spent hours trying to solve the puzzle and trying to get each side back to a solid colour – and I was successful on more than a few occasions (although it did take a while). The Rubik’s Cube (originally designed as an educational tool and called the Magic Cube) is a toy that has been around for nearly 50 years – in was invented in 1974 by Ernõ Rubik, a Hungarian architecture professor. It is still a very popular toy, even in age of tablets and smartphones, and is still being played with by children today.
We own several Rubik’s Cubes, and they are always being picked up and played with, even if just for a few minutes at a time, it is the perfect fidget toy. But the Rubik’s Cube is a solitary toy, therefore we were delighted to try out the two player Rubik’s Race – a fast-paced challenge game for 2 players, age 7+, to get their brains and fingers racing to beat their opponent.
Rubik’s Race, an original Rubik’s product, is a two-player game where you race head-to-head with your opponent to shift and slide the tiles on the game board to be the first to make the 3×3 centre squares to match the pattern on the scrambler after you have shaken it. It is a fast-paced frantically fun matching game.
In the box:
- Game base and Centre Frame
- 48 Coloured Tiles
- 9 Coloured Mini Cubes
- Scrambler
- Instructions
Based on the Rubik’s Cube, one of the world’s best ever selling toys, Rubik’s Race is a game of moving coloured squares around to complete a pattern – except this time it is in a race with another player on a game board rather than using a cube. Rubik’s Race is a board with two 5×5 grids divided by a centre 3×3 square. The idea of the game is that two players play at the same time, and the winner is the fastest that can recreate the tile pattern shown on the scrambler in the centre of their board as fast as possible (when they pull the centre frame down the correct 3×3 pattern should be visible in the frame centre cut-out).
ShAKE it, Slide it, Solve it!
Overall, I have loved playing Rubik’s Race, it is an enjoyable and fun competitive game where players go head-to-head to manipulate those coloured squares. A challenging matching game that requires concentration, skill and speed.
It is a very simple game to play with the players sitting at opposite ends of the 5×5 grid game board. The centre frame is turned up into a vertical position so that each side is separated and put into a horizontal position to check solutions. The Rubik’s scrambler is shaken so that the 9 mini cubes within it are mixed up to give a 3×3 pattern of different colours that players then race to slide their tiles to match it on their board. The first and fastest player to create this pattern wins.
You can also play in other ways with:
Relay Race – arrange a random pattern of 24 tiles and race to arrange four different patterns in sequence.
Three Colour Contest – trade tiles with your opponent do that you each have 8 tiles of 3 colours and race to create three different patterns.
This is a fun and enjoyable game for adults just as much as the children. You really do have to concentrate on the board and try to think ahead to quickly move tiles around the board into their correct positions. The speed of the game does make it very competitive (and can see you making silly mistakes under pressure), but it is lots of fun.
Rubik’s Race is a game that not only challenges players with fast thinking and logic but brings out their competitive sides. The only thing that I would have liked to see supplied with it was a drawstring bag to make it a more portable game.
A fun, challenging and exciting game that Rubik’s fans will adore. A great challenge to add to those family game nights.
Rating: 5/5
RRP: £22.99
For more information, visit www.johnadams.co.uk. Available to buy from Amazon here.
Disclosure: I received this item for free for the purposes of writing an honest and impartial review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. This review uses an affiliate link which I may receive a small commission from if you purchase through the link.
