Magical Athlete

My latest boardgame obsession is Magical Athlete. Each player has a team of four racers. Each racer takes part in one of four races, with increasing rewards for victory as you progress through them. Two of the tracks are mild, so are just straight races. Two are wild, and are littered with bonus and penalty spaces. To race you line the competitors up and players take turns rolling the dice and moving their pieces that many spaces. It's a simple family race game with no skill and no fun.

Well ... no. You see each racer has a rules-altering special power. One can choose to move exactly five spaces instead of rolling. One can drag another racer to their space from anywhere on the board. One gets to advance a space every time another racer uses their ability. True, some of the abilities just happen, but others offer choices. Choosing which race to commit a particular racer to is also a decision. Some work better on the mild races, whilst others give you an edge on the wild board. But you know what racers are in the other teams and you also have to outguess your opponent - will they commit a racer that makes your power less useful?

And the fun? With multiple powers in play for each race the results can be chaotic and unpredictable. You'll enter some races at a disadvantage and still enjoy the process. 

And how does he game look? Amazing. The artwork is wonderfully quirky and childish, really giving it a lot of personality. These are the playing pieces for the 36 racers on offer. A game will use between 16-24 of them. 

The cards are equally nice. And you can see some of the powers there as well.

Racers on the start space of a wild race. From left to right they are: Lackey (gets to move if an opponent rolls a 6), Third Wheel (gets to advance to any space where they can make a threesome), Genius (gets an extra turn if they predict their die roll), Heckler (gets to move if an opponent moves badly), Gunk (slows everyone else down) and Rocket Scientist (can double their move but crashes afterwards)

The end of a set of races. Twin (copies a previously used power) has just won, whilst Dicemonger (can sell rerolls) has come in second. 

This is not a heavy game. But it's clever, looks fantastic, is good for all ages and (most importantly) a tremendous amount of fun.