Dungeon Kart is the newest racing game set in the world of Boss Monster. You control a different car and a different driver each time you play, taking turns to tactically cross the finish line before any other drivers. Along the way, you grab coins and spells books to gain extra actions to smash other drivers on obstacles or walls. The game is published by Brotherwise Games and can be played with 2-8 players. It takes under an hour to play and is recommended for players aged 10 and up.
What’s In The Box?
- 15 Double sided map tiles
- 8 Spell markers
- 10 Acrylic racers and 1 ghost standee
- 10 Racer cards with placement tokens
- 1 First player token
- 1 Freeze token
- Grass, bomb, zombie, coin, hazard (hero, tar, spill, fang root, smashinator, lava puddle, boost and gravestone), crystal, and smoke bomb tokens
- 8 Dashboard with stands
- 11 Epic Hero Tokens and cards
- 3 Decks of spell cards
- 3 Placement tracking boards and finish lines (2nd and 3rd)
- 2 Dice (Smashinator and boost)
- 8 Reference cards
- 8 red and blue team markers
- Token bag
- 1 rulebook and 1 racing guide
How’s It Play?
This is really the board game version of Mario Kart. The game is a race, and you ultimately want to win the race, but you can also do some things besides going fast that help you win.
Each player has their own player board that gives them the amount of movement points they have for their turn. At the beginning of your turn, you either move your stick up one or down one, increasing the amount of movement points or decreasing the amount of movement points. You then use your movement points to either move forward, turn by changing direction by 60 degrees, drift by moving forward and to the side without changing directions of your car, or bump another opponent in front of you.
After you move, you see what type of terrain you went through, and whichever is listed on your player board at the lowest level, you then move your stick shift down to there to start your next turn. This means terrain can affect how fast you can go, so it’s important to pay attention to it.
You want to time out your moves because you can only drift and turn once during each turn, and you have to use all of your movement points. You don’t want to be stuck using them to crash into any of the obstacles or walls. Why? Because when you do crash, you move the stick on your player board down to the lowest gear and start your next turn at a slower speed.
In addition to maneuvering the obstacles placed on the track and placing yourself in good spots, you also have driver abilities. As you drive around the track, you can pick up coins and spells books. Coins are used to trigger driver abilities, and each driver does something different and unique. Spell books are like hitting questions marks in Mario Kart. At the end of the round, you determine who is in the lead; whoever then has a spell book can discard it to gain a card of the matching position they are currently in. So if you are leading, your card will be something good but not as incredibly good as when you are in last.
These cards list when they can be triggered and make it so you can catch up if you are behind. Knowing this, sometimes it’s smart to go off track and collect the extra coins and spell books to then use to take back your position and win the race.
There are several obstacles that can cause you to crash or spin out, thus lowering your speed. Players are encouraged to bump into others and cause them to crash. Some of the obstacles, which are randomly placed, are heroes and have cards that make them harder to avoid. Their jobs are to cause more crashes, and you have to try to plan for their behavior, as you don’t want to lose the game because you got too close to the princess.
After each player performs their turn by moving their gear stick up or down, moving their driver, and possibly using any of their abilities, then any hazards are triggered, all of which have certain rules. Players are then positioned on the placement track to show who is in lead. Spell cards are gained by those who have spell books, and the first player token is passed clockwise to the next player. The next round is then performed, and this happens until someone passes the finish line. All players get the same amount of turns, and if multiple players pass the finish line, whoever has the most remaining movement points wins the game.
The Verdict
Dungeon Kart is the closest tabletop game I’ve seen to Mario Kart than any other racing game I’ve played. I mean that in a good way. As with Mario Kart, there are strategic parts to the game but also plenty of randomness, like drawing spell cards and doing fun moves that not everyone else can do with your driver abilities.
Different parts of the track have different movement points, and it takes more to move on different types of terrain. You probably won’t stay on the asphalt the entire game, either. You’ll need to drive on other terrain to both maneuver the course and collect coins and spell books. But the turns and the way you setup the track is fun, and fair to players. There are many ways to move around and go the way you want. You’ll mostly be trying to setup your turns moving in lines, as turning and drifting can only be done once per turn.
It’s a race where anything can happen, anyone can pull out a win at the end, and players each get excited when they can use their special abilities to target other players. Short cuts, lightening bolts, zombies, they are all fair game in this game.
The components are great. There are a bunch of oversized tiles to use to make different tracks. The acrylic racers work very well for this game. Tokens are what you would expect, though the cards seem a little thin and flimsy. The insert is great, as it helps you store all the components without any problems. Overall its a great production by Brotherwise, and the art matches both what you would expect for a game like this and other titles from Brotherwise.
While an overall fun and strategic game, I do have some doubts about the heroes. They seem to try to make obstacles different, changing them while you play. However, this fails frequently and adds time to the game. Sometimes they don’t even impact anything, making me wonder if they’re a useful addition to gameplay.
My kids and I have definitely enjoyed playing Dungeon Kart, and it will be one of the racing games we come back to, especially when the kids want to attack each other and then get revenge. This has lead me to many victories, as they are distracted with each other and let me fly across the finish line. Not that I’m complaining!
You can grab Dungeon Kart from Brotherwise Games or your FLGS at an MSRP of $59.95.
Images via Brotherwise Games.
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