Road Kill Rally Session Report

If Need for Speed and Mario Kart had a baby, it would be Road Kill Rally. #4 on the Board Game Grow is a racing game that pits each driver against the others in a race to the finish. However, since no one likes a fair fight, each car is also mounted with weapons and armor.

That’s the basic premise of Road Kill Rally. For a quick overview on how to play, each drive has a car that they get to mount with 1 weapon, 1 armor and 1 extra. They use these throughout the game to attack other drivers and pedestrians. That’s right, in Road Kill Rally, you not only score points by shooting other drives with a heat seeking missle, you also score by running over (or shooting, if your steering is off) little old ladies, children and pregnant women.

The course is a series of tiles that are laid out as you progress through the track. So you never know if you will be hitting that hairpin turn at 120mph or if there might be a cow coming up on the road ahead. In addition to your mounted weapons, you will also have a hand of “Rally Cards.” These cards not only provide you with extra actions you can do on your turn, but your overall health. When you take damage, you lose a card. Lose all your cards and you wipe out (costing you precious points and time in the race).

That’s the overall basics of it. Fairly easy to learn. The real joy comes from trashing your fellow opponents cars. I must admit, I got a little to interested in shooting my fellow players car with my flamethrower that I probably missed some points from the pedestrians (who are worth more than hitting other cars).

You can play in either solo races or team play. This time, we opted for team play (2v2v2) which we found to be a lot more fun. It deepens the strategy and also helps to have someone what your back.

If you like deep strategy and calculated moves, than this game is probably not the one for you. Our games have always involved a lot of mayhem. The cars usually stay fairly grouped together resulting lots of shooting and reckless driving (yes, you can ram other cars). But that’s where the fun lies in the game. There is something satisfying about playing the Orbital Death Ray card and taking a shot at everyone on the board. In Road Kill Rally, it usually devolves into less about racing and more about revenge. But that’s ok. The game doesn’t take itself to seriously (which helps when you are trying to drive over little children).

If you are interested in getting a copy for yourself, it’s about $15. Which is actually a very good price for a game that retails for $60. Since it will play up to 6 players in a couple of hours, it’s a nice grab for those nights when you have a large group. Just make sure to pack your Dashboard Jesus.

Final Score: 3 Stars – A fun twist on racing games. A little bit of mayhem is a good thing.

Hits:
• Simple to learn racing mechanics
• A fun theme that doesn’t take itself to seriously
• Team options and non-team options in the game
• Lots of high quality components and good artwork

Misses:
• Play time feels a bit longer than it should be
• Hard to catch up to the leader if they take a strong lead