Feel the Heat!
The need for speed! Racing games haven’t been the most common games ive played but I tend to like them for rounding out the night and being snappy fun games. Heat is a recent release in this theme that has an interesting take on pushing your luck while still being a snappy fun racing game.
Great components for a great race!
In Heat: Pedal to the Metal you are using your deck of cards in order to progress through a two lap race. Unlike other racing games that generally use dice for movement you can choose which cards to use during your turn to move your car, there are some random “stress” cards that can give you random movement but generally you are in full control which is very nice in a simple card play system that doesn’t complicate the race. The main macguffin in this title is called heat. Everyone has an engine slot on your board of heat cards that are essentially dead cards that can end up getting into your deck. Generally gaining heat is bad as you get less options on your turn if you draw too many, take a corner too fast? You are taking some heat to compensate for it. However you can use heat to your advantage. On your turn you shift up or down gears in order to play more or less cards depending on how fast or slow you want to go on the track. One gear shift is free but if you want to jump twice you can choose to take a heat to do that. You can also voluntarily take a heat to draw another movement card, leading to some push your luck elements. The only way to remove heat is to gain cooldown effects which usually involves gearing down on your shifter, thus going slower.
I had a blast playing heat! Generally its been hard for me to find a racing game I like as they are either too random or have way too complex of a system for a theme that is all about racing to the end and thus should feel snappy. Here you have multiple options you can consider from order of card play to your hand to playing around with how much heat you are willing to take on in a fun simple push your luck racing system. The best part may be the module options in this game with one in particular that I am excited about. Usually everyone's deck is the same but at the start of the game you can draft unique car parts that go into your deck such as nitrous for a speed boost or extra heat in order to play around with movement options more making each game more unique. This one is hard to find right now and sells like hotcakes but I would definitely give it a shot if you have yet to play it!