Here's a game that could hardly be simpler. A deck of 16 landscape cards are laid out in a 4x4 grid. They all feature similar cartoon versions of the Mount Rushmore monument. Similar but not identical... The real monument has Washington and Lincoln facing right while Jefferson and Roosevelt face left. On each of the cards in the game, the four Presidents are in different combinations of left and right facing positions. A 'search' card is flipped from a separate deck and players race to be the first to spot the card in the grid that precisely matches the card that has been revealed. That player wins the search card. The overall winner is the player who ends up with the most search cards.
Despite or maybe even because of its simplicity, Mount Rushmore is great fun as a family or even short party game. The similarities between each card make it more challenging to play than it sounds: this is a long cry from Snap! It's this that makes it exciting as a speed game. A complete game will probably take no more than 10 minutes. It works as a two-player game and the upper limit on the number of players is really only the number who can be kept within reach around the 4x4 grid (the rules suggest 10 as a the upper limit).
Designer Dennis Kirps has incorporated an option for upping the difficulty level by adding in search cards with one or more of the Presidents' heads coloured red. For these, the correct match is the card that has that President facing the opposite way to that shown on the search card. These cards certainly demand an additional step in players' mental processing when looking for matches. The one extra suggestion we had for upping the challenge is the imposition of a penalty for being overly hasty and choosing a 'match' that is incorrect.
Artist Magdalena Markowska and publishers Strawberry Studio have done a grand job with the production of this game. The art is definitely an important part of Mount Rushmore's undoubted charm and of what will bring you back to keep you playing.