Tokyo Highway - Rainbow City
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The FroGames review
Rest the stick, hold your breath, take your fingers away. It holds. Put the little car on top and watch the others: someone is already trying to pass underneath.
WHAT IT IS
A three-dimensional puzzle that grows across the table
Tokyo Highway: Rainbow City is the new edition of the abstract game by Naotaka Shimamoto and Yoshiaki Tomioka, released in 2023 by itten in Japan and brought to Italy by Tambù Games. Compared to the original, it introduces sticks with adhesive pads at the ends (which make the structures more stable), colored column pieces, and a mission variant that turns the game into a race for points.
At the table, you build suspended highways using sticks and columns of different heights. Every time your road passes over or under an opponent's, you place a little car. The first player to run out of all their cars wins, or the last player still standing when the others run out of materials. Physics is both your ally and your enemy: every piece added changes the balance of the entire network.
What they say abroad
"Tokyo Highway: Rainbow City / トーキョーハイウェイ レインボーシティ is a new edition of Tokyo Highway with new gameplay elements and updated components that make the game easier to play...which can be good or bad depending on your taste for collapsing roads."
— itten
Rainbow City makes Tokyo Highway more stable, but the tension remains intact: one millimeter less and everything collapses.
— FroGames
Tokyo Highway: Rainbow City
FrogScore · FroGames editorial review · based on rules, international reviews, and play sessionsThe puzzle pieces
What's in the box
Road sticks
Wooden sticks with adhesive pads at the ends. They rest on the columns and balance precariously. They are your track, your challenge, and your nightmare when they wobble.
Gray and yellow columns
Wooden discs that you stack to create the pylons. The gray columns are standard, the yellow ones unlock special rules: forks, ramp exits, height violations.
Little cars
Colored car markers that you place on the road every time you pass over or under an opponent. They are your victory points: finish them before the others and win.
Buildings and city objects
Airport, tower, park, buildings. You distribute them on the table at the beginning: they serve as obstacles and as objectives in the advanced variant missions.
🎲How to playThe rules in four steps▼
How to play
The flow of each turn
A turn of Tokyo Highway is a sequence of three steps: place, balance, and deploy (if you can).
Choose where to grow your highway. Stack gray or yellow discs to create a pillar. The new column must have one disc more or less than the previous column (height rule). If you use a yellow disc on top, you can break this rule.
Connect the previous column to the new one with a road stick. One end rests on the old pillar, the other on the new one. The adhesive pads help, but physics is supreme: if it wobbles too much, it collapses.
If your road stick passes over or under an opponent's road, place a car on your road stick for every intersection created. This is how you win: by running out of all your cars before anyone else.
If you have a column with a yellow disc on top, you can create a fork (a second branch). Or you can build an exit ramp: a road stick with one end on the table and the other on a single column. The exit automatically places a car but closes that branch forever.
⏱️Your first gameThe play-by-play, moment by moment▼
A game in five moments
What happens at the table
Not the rules. The experience.
The empty city
Distribute the buildings on the table: airport, tower, park. Everyone places their first road with a column and a car on top. The table is still clean, there is room for everyone. No one knows yet that soon it will be a tangle.
The first intersections
Someone passes over your road. Place the car and smile. You try to pass under them with a low ramp, but the column height doesn't work out: you have to recalculate. Physics starts to bite.
Aerial Tetris
Now every space is contested. You place the road stick, it wobbles, you hold it steady with one finger while you put the column underneath. Someone holds their breath for you. The roads intertwine above, below, to the side: Tokyo has become a three-dimensional maze.
The collapse (or almost)
A column wobbles. A road stick falls. The cars roll. Whoever caused the collapse loses a piece or is eliminated, depending on the table rules. From here on, every move is surgical: tweezers, trembling fingers, concentrated silences.
The last car
Someone places their last car or is the only one left with materials in hand. The table is a sculpture of road sticks, columns, colored cars, and buried buildings. No one wants to take it apart: snap a photo first.
🐸Good to know beforeThree honest things, from friends▼
Good to know before
Three things to know
A steady hand is needed
This is not a game for those in a hurry. Every piece must be placed with millimeter precision. If your hands shake after three coffees, wait until tomorrow. The road sticks wobble, the columns shake: concentration is physical, not just mental.
The table matters
A smooth and stable surface is mandatory. A wobbly table or a tablecloth ruins everything. Vibrations spread: someone rests an elbow and your highway collapses. Space is needed: at least 80×80 cm free, preferably more.
Imperfect scaling
In two, it is a tense and fast duel. In three, it works well. In four, the table becomes congested and turns get longer: you wait for three people before you make micro-surgical moves. If you play in four, consider it a slow party game, not a fast abstract game.
🏆Victory and defeatWhat the ending rewards▼
How it ends
How you win and how you lose
Two ways to win, one to leave the game.
Victory
- You have placed all your cars on the road network
- You are the only one left in the game with available materials
- In the mission variant: you have accumulated the highest score by adding placed cars, completed objectives (loops, special ramps, matches with opponents), and structural bonuses
Elimination
- You have run out of all road sticks or all columns and can no longer build
- You caused a collapse of your highway (optional rule: you can also just lose the collapsed piece without elimination)
- You cannot legally place a road stick while respecting the height rule and you have no yellow discs to break it
Tokyo Highway: Rainbow City is the only abstract game that leaves a monument on the table at the end of the game. And makes you say "one more" even if you have lost for the third time in a row.
💬Frequently asked questionsQuick answers before the cart▼
Frequently asked questions
FAQ on Tokyo Highway: Rainbow City
What is the difference between Rainbow City and the original Tokyo Highway?
Rainbow City introduces road sticks with adhesive pads at the ends (more stability, fewer accidental collapses), colored columns with special rules (yellow for forks and height violations), and a mission variant that turns the game into a score hunt. The base system is identical, but this edition is more accessible and replayable.
Is a perfect table really needed or is it an exaggeration?
It is not an exaggeration. Tokyo Highway is sensitive to every vibration: wobbly tables, tablecloths, uneven surfaces make the structures collapse. A smooth, rigid, and stable surface is needed. If your dining table wobbles when someone leans on it, play elsewhere.
Can you play well in four?
It works, but it is a different experience. In four, the table becomes saturated quickly, turns get longer (you wait for three people), and the game can exceed 50 minutes. In two or three players, the pace is tighter and the tension better calibrated. Four is fine if you are looking for a contemplative party game, not a fast abstract game.
What mechanics does Tokyo Highway: Rainbow City use?
It is a game of stacking and balancing combined with network building. The mechanics are purely physical: spatial placement, height management, aerial intersections. Zero luck, all manual skill and geometric planning.
Does the Italian edition include the rules in Italian?
Yes, the Tambù Games edition includes the complete rulebook in Italian. The components are language-independent (road sticks, columns, cars, buildings): no text on the game materials.
The people behind the game
Who invented it, who designed it, who publishes it — and what else they have done.
Tokyo Highway: Rainbow City is a three-dimensional construction abstract game for 2-4 players, duration 30-50 minutes, age 8+. Designed by Naotaka Shimamoto and Yoshiaki Tomioka, it combines stacking, balancing, and network building mechanics in a table engineering challenge. Players build suspended highways using road sticks and columns of variable heights: every time a road passes over or under an opponent's, a car is placed. Whoever runs out of all their cars first wins. This edition introduces road sticks stabilized with adhesive pads, special yellow columns, and a mission variant. Published by Tambù Games in Italy. Available on frogames.business.
Tokyo Highway - Rainbow City
Frequently Asked Questions
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