Magical Athlete Review
I’m sure I must have told you before that I am allergic to exercise. Doing any form makes me sweat, gives me blotchy skin and a shortness of breath, plus I ache the next day. If that isn’t an allergic reaction, I don’t know what is. So becoming a magical athlete while sitting down is instantly more appealing than an actual running track. I guess that’s why I have played Magical Athlete more than I have been to the gym this year. Or, ever now I come to think of it. Anyway, all those plays means I can tell you what it’s like in this review!
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Setup
This should be an absolute breeze. Unfold a board, empty out player characters and point tokens and you should be up and running. However, all players have to snake draft a character for four races first. A snake draft means that all players choose a character and when the last person has picked one, they choose another before everyone else chooses one in reverse order. This means that the player who picks first, also picks last to try and even things out.
Once everyone has drafted characters, they can choose their first racer out of the four they have picked, and the shenanigans can then begin.
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Gameplay
The phrase ‘roll and move’ still triggers me slightly from games I played as a child. In essence though, that is all you are doing in this game: rolling the dice and moving that many spaces. What makes this more interesting, is that each character has a unique ability that breaks or changes the rule of the game, with often unthinkable results.
After the first race the board is flipped, with the alternate side having spaces to move players forwards and backwards, akin to snakes and ladders but not as punishing, as well as additional victory point opportunities. The board flips after each race. The points for each race increases, so you need to pick your racers carefully. When four races have been run, the scores can be tallied, most points wins!
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What it’s like
I’m not going to pretend that the onboarding doesn’t take a bit too long. Drafting characters, especially with new players is slow. You could possibly dish out random characters when playing with newbies, depending on your audience. Once you’ve played one race, the whole game becomes second nature and drafting will equally makes more sense going forward. A house rule that could get you up and playing a bit faster.
Once the draft is complete though, the game really picks up pace and the lunacy of some of the powers shines through. This board game is a riotous romp with cheers, groans and schadenfreude. While no ability is particularly overpowered, some work incredibly well with others, meaning they become quite mighty in some races.
The abilities, unpredictability and the way the characters interact is what makes this game entertaining. It works well at higher player counts, as you remain invested on other people’s turns as abilities are triggering all the time. Downtime is apparent, but the chaos of the race seems to make any wait between turns fly by. Often, you will be too busy laughing to care about any wait between rolls.
While it plays 2-6 players, this game really comes alive at higher player counts as the conflicting or complementary abilities are much more likely to activate with more racers on the board. I’m unlikely to ever reach for this one with less than four players at a table.
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Table Presence
I think the retro styling and colourful palette of this game is absolutely spot-on! It reminds me of psychedelic cartoons from my childhood and that really matches the riotous gameplay. The unique tokens for each racer is exorbitant, but most welcome! The little detail that the background on the card matches the background of the racer helps a little to quickly identify them on the track too.
The double-sided board is fun, but I do find myself hankering a little for additional tracks to mix things up a little bit more. The dice are colourful and the font used for the values works well.
The rulebook is equally kookie, but at the expense of being particularly useful and that is one of my biggest gripes with the game. It does get you up and running. Eventually though, you find yourself asking a question about how something interacts or resolves, but the answers are seldom found in the rulebook. It’s fine, generally you discuss it as a group and come up with a conclusion, but a more conclusive appendix to powers would be appreciated, even if digitally.
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Final thoughts on Magical Athlete
This board game was originally published in 2003, but Richard Garfield has tinkered with the original design by Takashi Ishida. I never played the original, but I can say that this game still feels relevant today in its current guise.
Magical Athlete doesn’t have a lot of strategic depth, it remains at its heart a roll and move game and frankly has no right to be as entertaining as it is! However, it is simple rip-roaring fun. The races are full of wacky interactions that spiral into satisfying chaos in unexpected ways and you will be smiling and discussing an ability for some time after the overall winner is announced. Of course, if you try and take this game too seriously, then it will fall flat.
In a race of quirky characters, the ultimate winner is the game itself which excels in the party game genre!
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Key Facts
Number of players: 2 to 6
Board Game Review Recommended Age: 8+
Publisher’s Recommended Age: 6+
Playing Time: 35 minutes
Setting Up and Take Down Time: 4 minutes
Designers: Richard Garfield and Takashi Ishida
Publisher: CMYK
RRP: £26.99
Summary
It’s silly, it’s stylish, it’s fun and for a party game for up to six players, Magical Athlete is pretty darn fantastic!
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Artwork and Components
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Complexity
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Instructions
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Interaction
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Value for Money
Overall
Pros
- Brilliant styling
- Easy to learn
- Wild and wacky races
- Often creates a giggle
Cons
- Is often out of stock
- Drafting characters with new players
- More race tracks would be nice
- Rulebook could be more comprehensive
Need more games?
If you already own Magical Athlete and enjoy it, or are looking for other inspiration, you might also like these similar games:
- Camel Up
- Hot Streak
- Flamme Rouge
- Quest for El Dorado
Buy Magical Athlete
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Reviewer’s Note
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