The other CMYK Game is Magical Athlete. You can checkout my Hot Streak review from yesterday for the first hit last year. Magical Athlete is not a new game though. And it feels old because you are racing by rolling a die and you move that far. That sort of luck is not something that I recommend in a lot of games. And the randomness of maybe just rolling a one five times in a row isn’t fun, or is it. Let’s look at how the game is played.

How To Play Magical Athlete

In Magical Athlete you are drafting racers and then trying to win races and get points as you go. The player at the end of four races who has the most points from stars and trophies is going to win the game. But let’s talk about how the game itself works.

In the setup for Magical Athlete you set out a group of racers that is twice the number of players. Like Hot Streak, you are going to do a snake draft. And you do a snake draft twice, actually. As you draft, you take one athlete with their power and you add that to your group of racers. Once each player has four racers you are almost ready to race.

Before each race you pick your racer for that race. Each racer can only race once. And each race is going to be worth more points for your finish, if you win or come in second. Then you start rolling, in turn order, starting with the loser of the previous race first, or randomly for the first race. You move that far forward, activate your ability if you can, and that is your turn. It goes like this until someone wins.

Then you repeat the process drafting a new race. The twist is that the board flips back and forth between races. So you start on a simple track and then on a track with move forward, back, fall over, and other spaces on it.

What Doesn’t Work

This is a roll and move game. Expect to have some dud rolls and maybe even some dud races as you play. Now it is four races and each racer is going to have a different power. But sometimes your rolls won’t match up with the abilities of the racer that you have for that race.

The other thing is that the races are well balanced in terms of length, but if everyone is rolling low it is going to take a little bit longer to complete the race. So it is less of a fast experience than you get for Hot Streak. And I think that is something to know because it’s going to be just fine for most people, but might feel a little slow/long for others.

What Works

Firstly, all the powers of the racers need to be talked about. You draft your racer thinking it is going to be good. Then you get into the race and you don’t roll right for it and you think another is overpowered. But if you roll right for yours everyone will think yours is over powered. Yes, some are better than others , but the dice is a great mitigating factor. The only one that I dislike is M.O.U.T.H. who can eliminate someone from a race. Otherwise, all awesome.

While there is a lot in the game to keep track of with powers, you don’t need to keep track of them all. The hardest part, the part with most thinking, is really who you draft. And it is tricky, with 12 racers to keep track of all the powers to draft. But once you draft one only maximum of six to know. That is going to make it way simpler. So yes, it is a lot, but you mainly need to know your powers.

The races are a solid length. I mention that with poor rolls it might be a bit long. But that is going to be a lot of players rolling poorly. And a lot of the powers mitigate that so it can’t take too long. Plus you want a little bit of time for your racers to show off what they cando.

I also think that this is a good racing game too, as my final positive. A lot of racing games tend not to move that quickly. Formula D, a fun game, is a solid example of that, especially as you add in more players. But Magical Athlete is fun with six players and is not too long. Turns are snappy, simple, and fast.

Who is Magical Athlete For

Like Hot Streak, this is a great game for playing with more casual people and for something to do. Another beer and pretzel style exciting game as you play it. It won’t be for people who want a ton of control. But I think that you can plan a little strategy as to when you use a racer. A decision here or there in the game, but you won’t have a ton of control.

Final Thoughts on Magical Athlete

I like Magical Athlete a lot. Mainly I love it for what it is. It’s a simple game with nice production that is easy to learn and play. Even the most complex elements or slow moments, like drafting, aren’t that slow. And once the drafting is done, which happens at the start of the game, it is mainly silly racing ttime.

What stands out to me about the game is that it is a racing game that moves quickly. Games like Formula D or Heat are great racing games. And they offer so much more control in your racing. But Magical Athlete is a game where you generally feel the speed of a racing game. Just roll and move.

My Grade: A-
Casual Grade: A-
Gamer Grade: C+
Strategy: 1.5 out of 5
Luck: 4 out of 5

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