The Faster the Better

If there is one type of board game that I'm partial to besides massive strategy games it would be racing games. I'm not sure exactly why, but I own several racing games and I find myself always drawn to any type of racing game when i'm parusing the internet or a game shop. Today's article will talk about some of the great racing games of the past and present so get ready, set ..go!!!


Arena Maximus

Despite weak reviews I purchased this game on impulse when it was released and to date it remains one of my favorite games rarely collecting dust on my shelf. Arena Maximus is a fantasy based chariot racing game where you play as one of five chariot drivers, racing on a deadly oval track. As you race down the track you have to avoid various obstacles, while simulatnously fighting with the other chariot drivers and trying to maintain control of your chariot. The game mechanic albeit it simple is very clever using a system where the cards in your hand represent control and whip cards played on the table represent your speed. The tough part is that your limited to 7 cards all together so the faster you go (the more whip cards you play) the less cards you have in your hand which are used to avoid obsticles, fight, cast spells and defend yourself, in effect your control. The faster you go the less control you have. When you fail to avoid an obsticle or defend yourself against a player attack your chariot takes damage, if you take too much damage you crash. Naturally the first player across the track wins the game but the game is played in reverse order so at the start of each turn the last player goes first, then the second to last etc.. etc.. so being in front can be a big disadvantage, while being too far back can put you out of the running for victory. The end result is that every race is extremly close as players try not to get too far ahead or fall too far behind until the very end when everyone makes a play for the goal line. In this game its rare that the race is anything but very very close. A very fun game I love to play, albeit the instructions are not very well written which I think has ultimatly lead to this games 'bargain bin' status, but all the better you can pick this game up dirt cheap.


Mississippi Queen
Mississippi Queen is one of those rare games that I can actually get none gamers to play and love. Its simple to learn and quite addictive. The premise is quite simple, you control a river boat in a race to the finish line on the very hazardous Mississippi river. You control the speed of your boat, but the speed you set you are commited to and you can slow down and speed up only so fast. In a pinch you can use your very limited resource oil to make the really tough manuvers, but watch out, the resource is in fact very limited and once its gone its gone. The trick to the game is that you don't see the track as you go down the river. A die is rolled to determine which way the river will turn and a randome tile is used and placed in the right position. The result is a sort of wacky race where you never really know if you are going too fast or too slow and what direction the river will bend next. To complicate matters you also have to pick up passengers along the way. The games mechanics might be too simple for some, but Rio Grande games usually function on the premise that the people playing their games aren't nescessarily gamers and I think the game works very well as a party game. You can pull this out after people have broken into the wine and expect it to be a very popular and fun experiance. Unfortunatly this game can sometimes be hard to find, a search on Ebay revealed only two copies, both severly over priced. The reason for this however is not that the game is rare but that people seem to have trouble spelling the word Mississippi correctly. A closer examination on Ebay reveals that quite a few copies are sold for as little as 10 bucks with various renditions of badly spell 'Mississippi's'. Really a great buy I strongly recommend it.


Formula De
Formula De is one of those games that benefits from more players and tends to be less fun with the fewer players you have. In fact even a 4 player game can seem uneventful. However if you do manage to get 6 or more people in a room to play a game, this is an experiance well worth it. Formula De uses a interesting mechanic in which you change gears represented by the type of dice you roll which in turn determines your speed (how far you can travel). You have various statistics for your car like tires, body and brakes which are a limited resource that allow you to avoid crashes when you go to fast or potentially crash into someone. In addition the track has control points which force you to travel down certain paths around turns, hence you must decide as you enter a turn which position you will travel along. This decesion can easily lead to a crash if you aren't planning your driving strategy appropriatly. Its a very addictive game, one that I wish I could play more often but unfotunatly as mentioned with anything less then 5 players much of the excitment is lost. The game has a pretty good level of support from the publisher with a variety of tracks and expansions available. The pricing on the game is kind of strange though, certain sets are very expensive in excess of 100 dollars while others barely breaking the 10 dollar mark. I'm not sure what the reason for that is but needless to say its difficult to recommand this game for 100 dollars, but if you can find it reasonably price it definitly deserves a place on your shelf.