Driving Under Vertigo (Tokyo Highway)

The biggest problem in a crowded city is affordable housing.  But the second is traffic.  It can be daunting trying to get to work down the street when that street is blocked by a car every other step.  So, the Road Building Committee (totally a real name) has decided to hire some lucky people to design and build a roadway to help avoid the traffic, no expenses spared.  And where better than the busiest city in Japan?  It comes down to you to design this "Tokyo Highway" and make life easier for all.  Except the banks, construction workers, actual drivers, etc.

BACKGROUND:  Tokyo Highway is a dexterity game originally designed in 2016 by Naotaka Shimamoto, Yoshiaki Tomioka, and Yoshiaki Tomioka, and published by itten for 2 players.  Build rising roadways and attempt to place cars without knocking over the roads.

GAMEPLAY:  Each turn, a player builds a pillar by stacking each pillar piece that is one higher or lower from a road they built, and put a road piece between so that both ends are centered on the pillars.  Then, a player may place a car on the road if it is crossing over an opponents road that has no roads over it, or crossing under an opponents road that doesn't have any roads under it.  Roads cannot touch or cross over any other pillars, or touch any roads outside of the ends on the pillars they rest on.  If their pillar is one high, a player can create an exit, which connects to the table, but they cannot progress on that road any longer.

YELLOW:  Yellow pillars are placed on the top of pillars, and are used to create Junctions.  Junctions do two things; they allow players to create an additional road from that pillar, meaning one road in, two roads out, and they can be used to connect a road to a pillar of any height.

WINNING:  This is a game of dexterity, so if you knock over any of your opponents pieces, you must hand over your pillars as a penalty, one per piece.  If a player cannot place pillars, they must pass their turn and wait if and when they're able.  The first player to put all their cars down wins.

CONCLUSION:  Tokyo Highway is a wonderful mess.  This game can be difficult, but not necessarily in the way you'd initially think.  It starts out as a 3d puzzle, to find optimal pathways and routes to get the most cars on the board, but that's only half of it.  Doing it can be the best, and most frustrating, aspect of this game.  With something like Jenga or Kilter, if you knock it over, it's easy to continue.  This game, you have to know exactly where something is.  And if you make a big screw-up, players can get discouraged and just end up conceding.  However, there's a certain joy in making something, and this game pushes you to build something crazy and wonderful.  If you have the patience, drive by and check out this monstrosity.

ADDENDUM: The version I played included the 4 player expansion.