How to play
RUSH HOUR is a blocky 3D traffic-weaving racer seen from a high chase camera behind your car. The throttle is always on and you start already rolling at about 145 km/h. Your job is to get down one long road through traffic before the clock runs out. The road is 35.8 km long and split into ten stages. Each stage ends at a checkpoint arch that adds that stage's time to your clock, and the game carries straight on into the next stage with no loading or menus.
On a computer, steer with A D or the arrow keys. S or Down brakes. Hold Space or Shift for nitro. To drift, tap the brake while you are steering (or press X); holding the brake down is just braking. R restarts from the current stage's checkpoint, Esc or P pauses and M mutes. On a phone, hold the left or right side of the screen to steer and use the BRAKE, NITRO and II (pause) buttons.
Hitting a car, a head-on with oncoming traffic or a concrete barrier costs 3 seconds and most of your speed. Clipping the side of a car costs a little speed and your combo, and scraping the guard rail slows you down. If the clock reaches zero, the run is over.
Tips and strategy
Speed is the danger, not steering. The car follows most of each bend by itself and you can always steer into any gap. What catches you out is arriving too fast at traffic that has slowed and bunched up for a corner. Brake a little before blind bends.
Read the corner warning. The HUD names the next real corner (HAIRPIN, CHICANE, S-BENDS, OFF-CAMBER, BEND or BEND SHARP) with an arrow for its direction and its distance in metres. Off-camber corners give you less grip, and so does the rain.
Drift for boost. Start a drift above about 110 km/h, steer into it to tighten the line, and let go or steer the other way to come out. A drift that lasts at least 0.6 seconds pays a DRIFT BOOST: extra speed, extra nitro and points.
Shave the traffic. Passing a car within 2 m is a NEAR MISS, under 1 m is CLOSE and under 0.45 m is INSANE. Oncoming cars score double, trucks and buses one and a half times, and near misses score double while drifting and one and a half times in a bend. Each one tops up your nitro and adds to a combo multiplier of up to x10, which lapses after 3 seconds without another.
Hit the APEX. In a tight bend, hug the inside edge as you pass the middle of the corner for an APEX bonus, worth double if you are drifting.
Bank time early. Time you save carries over, so a clean run through the easy early stages gives you a cushion for the storm and the canyon.
What's in it
Ten stages on one connected road with 138 corners, from wide sweepers to hairpin switchbacks: Morning Commute, Downtown Rush, Freight Line (full of trucks), Cone Zone (lanes close for roadworks), Sunset Two-Way (oncoming traffic), Neon Night, Storm Front (rain and less grip), Midnight Works, Canyon Overtake (one lane each way) and Gridlock Gauntlet, which throws all of it at you at night in the rain. The sky, weather and scenery change smoothly as you cross each checkpoint.
Traffic follows the car in front, signals before changing lanes, sometimes cuts in or brakes suddenly, and merges before roadworks. Top speed is about 259 km/h and nitro pushes it to about 338 km/h. Each stage awards up to three stars for the time you have left on its own clock, and STAGES lets you start again from any checkpoint you have reached.
Questions
Is this the Rush Hour mode from STACK ATTACK? No. That is an endless mode inside the burger-stacking game. RUSH HOUR is a separate driving game.
Do I need an account? No. Your stars, best scores and the checkpoints you have reached are saved in your browser.
Is it violent? No. Cars are made of blocks, and a crash throws off block debris and sparks. Nobody is shown hurt.
Does it flash? Yes. The screen flashes red on every crash, and roadwork arrow signs blink amber. There is also screen shake on crashes and near misses.