I recently received the
Wacky Races Deluxe Edition boardgame produced by CMON. The Deluxe Edition differs from the standard edition in that it comes with pre-painted cars, which was a huge deciding factor in me buying it. I wanted the pre-painted cars - they are gorgeous (see photo below). Painting all eleven cars would have been far too time consuming for me, especially considering how many other projects I have on the go.
The game is really simple to play and I've found it a lot of fun. Although designed for 2-6 players I've been playing it solo by randomly choosing three cars to control and adding three random neutral cars. There must always be six racers plus Dick Dastardly (whom no one controls) in the game.
Here are the game contents - rulebook, a deck of 40 racer specific cards (four per racer), a deck of 64 movement cards, a deck off 16 Dick Dastardly trap cards, a quick play rule sheet, 11 miniature cars, 10 racer dashboards, assorted terrain tiles and the starting grid. The components are very well made and produced.
Here is a close up of the 11 highly detailed pre-painted cars. I love them!
Each racer starts with a dashboard to place their special cards on. They can be played at any time in the game but once played are turned over to show they have been used. They feature various tactics that are specific to each racer and as such are very flavourful.
Here is an example of the board layout. The terrain tiles are placed randomly to make the race track consisting of four different terrain types. Players each receive three movement cards per turn and must match them with the tile they are on to advance. For the first tile they move to each turn they can play any movement card, ensuring they always move at least one tile per turn. After that they must match the ties they are on with the appropriate movement card, so they could move one, two or three tiles per turn depending on the cards they pick. No dice are used in this game - it is entirely card driven. Tactic cards play a big part of the game. Knowing when to play them is key. For example, when I was playing the Red Baron in his Crimson Haybailer, I kept his advance 4 tiles card to the finale and won with it as he overtook the two cars in front of him who were closer to the finishing line!
Race cars are placed at either side of a game tile when they move. If both sides are occupied the car advances to the next available tile. Dick Dastardly, however, moves along the centre of each tile.
Dick Dastardly randomly moves by moving onto a tile that matches the movement card on top of the discard pile at the end of each player's turn. If he moves into the lead, he stops and lays a trap card then retreats to the back of the pack of racers. Note that he can never win the race but he does cause much mayhem.
I really like this game a lot. It brings back so many happy memories of watching the cartoons. Indeed, I also bought the DVD with all 34 episodes of the original
Wacky Races cartoons on three discs. So who is my favourite racer? Obviously it is the Creepy Coupe driven by the Gruesome Twosome. It is the only car with a vampire driver!