Ready? Set? CRASH!

Today's tasty treat is a review / how to play of Dungeon Kart, a racing game (a lot of these are popping up recently) and a very clear homage to Mario Kart.  To be honest this is could have been pitched to Nintendo, and when they declined, they changed the names of some things to get around copyrights.  I bought this at GenCon a few weeks ago.  Our play group fluctuates between 3 and 8 people, so we have spent quite a lot of time looking for games that can fit 8 and not just be a party game.  That being said, we have already established that this will likely be a staple party game.  I mean what's better than throwing a red shell fireball at a once friend because he cruised by you and dropped a banana zombie in your only path forward?  Buckle up, because seatbelts are absolutely required, crashing is inenvitable.

Dungeon Kart is created by Brotherwise, the creators of such hits as Dungeon Boss and Overboss.  If you've played their games before, you will probably recognize plenty of the playable racers and other references. I was lucky enough to grab the Golden Edition, which contains 4 extra racers, 2 extra map packs (icy peak and void), an extra (and unique) dashboard, 40 metal gold coins and a dry erase board + marker for a leaderboard. The box is on the bigger and heavier side, and I struggled to get everything back in after spending the requisite 40 minutes punching everything out.  In addition to everything listed above there are 15 double sided track tiles, 10 acryllic racers + cards, 8 dashboards and then a buncha components that appear during the game.  The only rules when building out a course are that the road that goes through the middle of every tile, lines up directly with the road of the previous tile to create a contiguous path from beginning to end. You can build a straight line for a single knock down drag race, or you can build a loop and have a couple of laps to keep things fresh.

Setup: Dungeon Kart is a fairly simple game at a glance and it's easy to see a world where you turn your brain off and just drive around bumping, drifting and blasting your way without putting a ton of thought into it. Some of my friends don't have that ability though, so we played a bit more strategic and calculated.  It was still an absolute blast.  As always we got plenty of rules wrong as we played our first game, partially because the rulebook wasn't quite as thorough as one might hope, and partially because you tend to find those corner cases a bit faster when you're trying to push the envelope and explore a game like my friend group tends to.  The book and map packs have ample setup options, instructing you to place specific tiles, and all tiles have some number of hazards which can range from pirahna plants fang roots and lava puddles to, boosts and heroes (they are the bad guys cause we're playing dungeon bosses, duhh).  These hazard tiles are randomized and pulled out of a bag at the beginning of the game.  Each tile also has some number of spellbook tiles, which provide you with spells at the end of the turn based on what position you're in.  These spells range from freezing everyone ahead of you to dropping zombies and bombs directly behind your racer to hinder your foes.  The only thing left in setup is determining player order so we can snake draft our racers and dashboards (karts).  Depending on the map setup this can be vital. If you see a lot of grass or turns you might want to prioritize a kart with offroad or handling.  If there are lots of walls you might want to be heavy to wreak the most havoc.  Once you have determined your Boss and Dashboard, it's time for the fun!

Gameplay: Every turn player a player MUST move their gear shifter up or down one level.  Each level determines how many movement points (MP) your character has that turn and every MP must be used or you crash.  The biggest use of MP is to move forward, which is one space in the direction your kart is facing.  The terrain you are traversing has a MP requirement.  Roads, ice, dirt all cost 1 MP, grass and snow cost 2 MP, and mud and water costs 3 MP.  You can do this any number of times in a turn as able. There's also a special rule that if you can use your LAST MP to move into any hex regardless of required MP, but once you have done so your turn ends (no special abilities or spells.) Turning and drifting can only be done once per turn by default.  Turn rotates your kart 60 degrees and drift moves you into an adjacent forward hex in front left or front right of the direction your kart is facing.  If you find yourself in the same hex as another player you can spend 1 MP to bump them into a hex adjacent to the direction YOU are facing. You can bump any number of players, but only 1 time per turn per player.  In the words of the great Ludacris, move Boss, get out da way...  If you bump them into a wall or hazard that is impassable, they crash; if you push them into a terrain that has a lower max speed than their current terrain, they have to adjust their gear shifter accordingly.  The final and least used option for MP is to brake, which doesn't move your kart and shifts your driver down 2 levels.  You utilize this when you need to avoid crashing or to set up for a turn.  Crashing and spinning out will happen, whether you choose it or not.  Getting bumped, blue shelled frozen, or just just going too fast and too furious, it's going to occur.  Crashing sets you back to your starting speed of 2, but it also lets you turn your kart to face whatever direction you want.  Spinning out moves you to 2nd gear, but doesn't let you change your facing.  There are definitely times where a strategic crashing is your best option.   At the end of turn you calculate the number of spaces each player has until they can reach the next track tile (the big tiles that form the board, not individual hexes) and that determines 1st place through 8th place. If you acquired a spell book during the turn you will gain a spell from one of the 3 decks based on that position.  Those in the lead get A level cards and those near the back get C level cards.  This is your typical red shell, blue shell, lightning and star scenario you come across in Mario Kart.  Each player can only ever have 1 spell OR 1 spellbook. So if you have a spell and don't use it, no matter how many spell tiles you run over, you won't gain anything, however, if you use a spell and then run over a book, you'll be able to draw a new spell again at the end of the turn. By now you should be able to play your first game.  I haven't gone through all the rules, so you'll still want to give yourself a refresher with the rule book, but this is a good place to start.

Review: Now for the review!  Dungeon Kart is great. Despite getting the rules wrong for most of the first lap, we all enjoyed our 2 lap race.   We played a 6 player free-for-all (the rulebook has an option for even number of players to be team).  It felt so much like a game of Mario Kart. They did a great job of making it feel like a racing game where the decisions you make on movement and turning really matter.  Sometimes you want to go out of your way to get a spell or use extra movement points.  There is just enough planning to scratch the strategy guru's itch, while also (as I eluded to earlier) having the ability to mindless rampage your friends.  You will plenty replayability due to the sheer number of track tiles (23 dual sided with the expansion), 12 playable characters and 9 different dashboards.  The spells are a bit redundant, which is only a minor ding to the score.  I can see the Brotherwise crew brainstorming some new abilities, or even using some old ones (BRING BACK THE FEATHER) in a new way.  I always loved finding weird shortcuts in Mario Kart and that might be lacking, but with only a single play, and personally not getting many spellbooks, it's hard to make a judgment call either way.  I definitely recommend picking up a copy when we get some in stock; in fact, you can order a copy now and we'll have it ready for you!