Dino Racer Review - The Betting & Racing Game for Everyone!
Transcript
Hello my friends. Today we have different dinosaurs racing down the track and we're going to be not only rooting for some, sort of betting on some, but also influencing the race. Today we're taking a look at Dino Racer. This is from Underdog Games. Let me show you how it's played. I'll see you on the other side.
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Now, all the dinos are going to be listed from favorite to underdog from top to bottom there. And it's three races long. And you'll see that this is a race in the upper right, the checker flag. As soon as the first dinosaur gets there, the race ends. Now, there's a deck of cards and the announcer is going to flip over a card one at a time, and they'll announce T-Rex. And that dino is going to move up one space there, as you can see. Now, you'll continue doing this one at a time until there's a certain amount of cards out there depending on the amount of players. Eventually, what's going to happen is at the end, each player is going to draft one of these dinos to have in front of them. That's what they're collecting. That's how many That's how you basically score the end game scoring. And so, what happens is at the end of everybody drafting a card or in a two two or three player game, two cards per round, there'll be one card left over always.
That card that nobody took actually gets to move an extra space forward, which is a really clever mechanism. So, at the end of the first round there, T-Rex is in first, Steggy's in second, third, fourth, and fifth. You'd pass the deck to the next player, they're the announcer, they start flipping them over one at a time. Let's say they flipped over Raptor. Anytime the last dino gets to a checkpoint, you flip it over, and something happens like, hey, fifth place moves plus one. 1 2 3 4 5 Bronto is going to move over one. Now, this will continue until any dino finishes. The race ends. first place, second place, third place. And so first place, every card that someone has as a raptor is worth a five. Every card second that you have of T-Rex is worth two. And every card you have of Tritop because it came in third place is one. These cards, uh, you know, these are going to get reset to another another race. But all of the cards that were flipped are discarded out of the game. They don't get shuffled back in the deck. And once you know how many cards there are of each dino, you'll get a feel for which one is going to be more likely or less likely to come up in the future round. So there's some metag game there. Now the race is seven cards long for race one, eight cards long race two, nine cards round in less three and race three. So it goes a little bit longer each time. And whoever has the most points at the end of the three rounds is the winner. Let's check out some of these more some of the other checkpoint cards like neck and neck.
Third place moves to the same position as first or first moves plus one in a breakaway or uh triep goes backwards one or uh bronto moves backwards one or try tritop moves up one or first moves minus one or discard a race card uh from the the track and that dyno moves plus two or fourth moves plus two or first and fifth swap spaces. So, this there's just some of the little flavor of some of these cards there for the checkpoints. That's pretty much how you play. Before I get to the moment you've been waiting for, I wanted to let you know that Game Toppers is known for their high quality game mats with over 38 styles and 12 sizes from some of the top artists in the industry like Vincent Dut and Ryan Lockett. They have the perfect storage solutions for all your mats like mat bags and mat racks. In September, they'll be launching the game matsbazar crowdfunding campaign, which will highlight the greatest mats on earth, including the new Victorian steampunk mat and many others. Visit gametopperslc.com for a free limited time. Receive 15% off existing stock using discount code game boygeeek 15 off. Okay, I first want to say that I typically love racing games.
I love betting games. I love interactive games. Uh, and so that's my biases sort of coming in here. And uh this is just an the game has adorable art and fun names. It's got things like Steggy and Bronto and it's just it's just fun. It's definitely obviously familyfriendly. This game's biggest asset is it is accessible and streamlined game for everyone. So it's like non-gamers like it love it. I brought this to my family for my dad's birthday this past weekend. Uh and all of them are non- gamers or like party games only and they loved it. And I've played this with gamers and gamers love it. Now, I will uh disclaim that I have played an earlier version of this. Actually, this game made my top 10 most anticipated games for Gen Con. I've played it since then. If you want to see that, you can go ahead and check back on my channel. I just did that. Uh but I had played it last year, about a year ago. Uh and and now seeing the the final thing, they they you know, streamlined even more things out and seeing the production stuff, it it just it's just great because it's it's a game for everyone. the gamers like it and the non-gamers like it. This for me captures the fun that you find in some of the best racing games in the industry. Ready Set Bet. Um, you know, Downforce and Magical Athlete and, uh, Longot the Dice Game and, uh, Camel Up. Like, all of these racing games are great, right?
This one, it basically captures like all of the fun of the other ones, but in a much easier to digest, smaller package. like this basically takes the minimalist amount of mechanisms that you would need to make a game like this work and that's it. There is no fat on this game. Um I love that the betting and the racing happens simultaneously. So it's like hey the race is going on. The cards are getting flipped and these dinos are moving every time it's flipped but then everybody drafts it, right? And so and then the the best twist is like the dino card not drafted gets to an extra move. And that's all I love games that do that where like you know uh Evergreen did this a game called Evergreen or Euro game where like you're drafting all these things for a multiplier scoring but the one you don't choose that's the one that actually goes up and it's like this they're at odds with each other.
You you want that card but if you don't take it it doesn't get extra move. If you don't take it gets an extra move. If you take it doesn't get an extra move. And it's like this little thing. It's just it's just clever and it just works so well. Um and so sort of like like I also like that the probabilities and the points have an inverse relationship. So, the T-Rex has the most cards in the deck, but you get the least amount of points if it comes in for a second or third. We're bronto the least of cards in the deck, and you get the most points. I love that. Gives you sort of that horse race odds feeling and it feels like real horse betting. Um, I like that the cards from the previous races stay out of the game. So, there's a metag game to this, right? Like if a ton of uh you know T-Rex cards came up in round one, well, when it gets towards round two and round three, if T-Rex is close to the lead, but someone else is coming up that you haven't seen a lot of cards of, there's a good chance that the other dyno is going to go and that you've got this metag game that goes between the two and the three races.
Also, there's a two and three player variant which makes sure that each player gets, you know, two cards instead of just one. That really helps the choices because it really lets you like think, "Oh, I'll get this and maybe they'll take this and I'll get that." And it really makes you think through things differently and it works so well. Games like this typically don't work with the lower player counts. They It works perfectly in that case with you being able to draft two different cards in alternating fashion. It just works. Now, the checkpoint does add fun because you're like, "Oh, the last item came up and let's see what happens." Uh, now I will say that some people will not like that much randomness. With that being said, I don't mind it because the game is so short. I do like having a little bit more information in my games. Uh I actually kind of like played around with some like advanced variants where the the the you know the first checkpoint card is face up in round one. The the next two the first two are face up in round two and the f three are face up in round three. So you're always seeing one, two, or three cards as the checkpoints are moving. So you have a little bit more information to sort of like weigh your thing on. I I I like to have a little bit more information.
If you if you don't like randomness, it's in there, but again, it's it's a short silly game. Um, the game has standup enchanting moments. Like, you know, there's going to be people pounding on the table. Stagy, stagy, broto, broto. You know, that that type of stuff just happens. Also, the card quality in this is great. Linen finish. They feel nice and thick. Um, they're going to handle a lot, so I'm glad they are that. And so, that's it. This game is fantastic. This is a special game. Not all. I mean, I pretty much vet every game that comes in this door. I've researched them. I want them. I'm interested in them. And even with that being said, eight out of 10 games that come through this door are good. They're fine. They're sevens. Very rarely these days does a special game come through my door, and this is one of them. Uh there is there anything negative about this?
Well, scoring is best done one at a time, so you can kind of go through and kind of make sure everyone's doing it right. But with the higher player counts, it can take a little longer, almost probably a little bit longer than I would like. Uh, but again, it's it's such a party atmosphere and the game generally is so short. It's not that big a deal. I'm trying to find something negative to say here because I I absolutely love this game. Um, and again, the checkpoints can definitely feel too random for some, you know, hey, I just moved Bronto. Flip this checkpoint. Bronto moves back one w, you know, stuff like that. But there's other ones. There's there's other ones that help balance it out and stuff like that, but that's it. Um, this game I would be absolutely shocked if it's not in my top 10 family games of the year. In fact, right now I think it's in the lead. I think it just took the lead from Cozy Stickerville for family game of the year for me so far for the year. It's really early, but that's how highly I think of this game. For all those reasons, it's getting my highest honor, saxophone serenade. So, here we go.