review
Chameleon versus Hyena
Crazy Race
Who is faster?
Animals race against each other, and they take turn at the steering wheels of the zookeeper’s vehicles. Participating animals are: Buffalo, Camel, Chameleon, Cheetah, Chimpanzee, Crocodile, Elephant, Flying Animal, Gazelle, Giraffe, Hippopotamus, Hyena, Ibex, Kangaroo, Meerkat, Ostrich, Polar Bear, Proboscis Monkey, Ram, Rhinoceros, Tiger, Wild Boar and Zebra plus one randomly assigned donkey as a starting animal for each player.
Players take turns. The active player decides how many cases he wants to cross or enter in front of the current position of his vehicles; the vehicles of other players are not considered at that point. For each of the intended cases you take the die of the corresponding color; your vehicle tile tells you the pip values for each dice color. If you want to advance three cases, you take the brown, green and white die if the three cases in front of your vehicle show those three colors, and roll all those dice. When the total of all pips showing on all dice is lower or equal to the limit of the vehicle currently pulling your vehicle - in your first turn not higher than the number on your starting donkey - you have succeeded and may move the intended number of cases. Attention! You move the number of cases = number of dice, not the sum of pips! When your total exceeds the limit of your animal, you can only advance one step.
In this way, all players take their turns; once in a round you can use the special ability of your current animal. If at least one vehicle has passed or reached the first palm tree, the race leg ends at the end of the current round. Beginning with the player in last place, all players choose - in ascending order for their positions in the race - one of the animal tiles on display and connect the new animal to their vehicle tile. The previous animal is set aside by each player and then new animal tiles are displayed according to the number of players.
When the first vehicle crosses the finish line and all remaining players have completed their turn, you add all point values in the bottom right corner of your collected animals and advance your vehicle by the total sum. Whoever is now in the lead, has won the crazy dice race.
For a race head-to-head between two players, the same rules apply, except for the displaying of animal tiles; new tiles one per player and one additional for any three cases between players in first and second place -are only revealed at the end of a leg, so you cannot plan - and the player in second place chooses for himself and his opponent.
Only rolling of dice, after all, you might think at first glance, but would be far off - Crazy Race is a fantastic family game with lots of in-game depth; when selecting animals, you must take into account limits and bonus values, must choose between risk and safe decisions, but remember, you can always risk two dice, because one step forward is always possible. The high replay value is achieved very nicely, too, it comes, besides the simple fun in playing, also from the track set-up. Due to the double-sided arch parts, which are added randomly, you have a wide variety in the sequence of color cases and therefore different animals become important, because the different dice have different maximum values between 2 and 6.
Marvelous dice fun for all the family, and yet with enough in-game depth for more experienced players.
Dagmar de Cassan
Players: 2-5
Age: 8+
Time: 60+
Designer: Alessandro Zucchini
Artist: Michael Menzel
Price: ca. 36 Euro
Publisher: Ravensburger 2017
Web: www.ravensburger.de
Genre: Race, dice
Users: For families
Version: de
Rules: de
In-game text: no
Comments:
Variable set-up
In-game depth despite simple rules
Of interest for experienced gamers, too
Absolutely marvelous family game
Compares to:
Race game with dice, partially influenced by in-race positions
Other editions:
Currently none
My rating: 6
Dagmar de Cassan:
An allover felicitous game, even if you are over the limit! Chance-driven, yes, but offering enough options to be interesting for experienced players too, without being too difficult. Lots of fun to play for all the family.
Chance (pink): 3
Tactic (turquoise): 2
Strategy (blue): 0
Creativity (dark blue): 0
Knowledge (yellow): 0
Memory (orange): 0
Communication (red): 0
Interaction (brown): 1
Dexterity (green): 0
Action (dark green): 0