Tokyo Highway Rainbow City

Create and expand even larger Tokyo scenes with new scenery pieces.

At the start of the game, each player has cars in their own color, as well as roads (sticks), gray column pieces, and yellow column pieces. Players set up the city by placing one end of one of their roads on the table and the other on a column, then placing one of their cars on it. Next, taking turns, they place urban elements—buildings, an airport, a tower, and green spaces—around the playing area.

On your turn, extend your highway by adding a new rod to its end. To do this, place one end of the rod on the column supporting the rod you just placed and the other end on a new column you add to the table; this new column must contain one more or one fewer column segment than the column at the other end of the rod. (If you create a column with a yellow piece at the top and at least one piece below it, you may break this height restriction rule.)

If you have built this section of the track so that your stick is the first to pass over or under an opponent’s stick, you score points by placing one of your cars on that track. If you pass over or under multiple sticks during the same placement, you place one car per stick that you go over or under!

You can create a fork from one of your columns topped with a yellow piece. You can also place a stick as an exit ramp if one end rests on a single column piece and the other on the table. This piece is automatically topped with a car—but this is also the final placement for that branch of your highway, so don’t end up in a dead end.

If you run out of building materials, you are eliminated. If you are the only one left in the game or if you have placed all your cars, you win.

Tokyo Highway: Rainbow City includes a “mission” variant in which all the basic placement rules apply, but your goal is now to score as many points as possible. Each placed car is worth 1 point; three consecutive lanes with cars on them are worth 2 points; a loop around a building is worth 1 point; an exit ramp to the airport or a green zone is worth 2 points; placing the same type of car on a lane as your opponent on the road above or below you is worth 1 point, and so on.

In this edition of the game, the roads have small adhesive pads at each end, making the sticks more stable than in previous editions where wooden sticks were placed on wooden columns.