“Manage your race car’s speed to keep from overheating.”

Link: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/366013/heat-pedal-to-the-metal
Playing Time: 30-60 minutes
Weight: lightweight
Genre: deckbuilding & racing game
Designer: Asger Harding Granerud, Daniel Skjold Pedersen
Players: 1-6

Image from boardgamegeek.com

A simple deck-building car racing games. Players have a handful of speed cards, and the number of which they can play is based on their gear. The gameplay is quick and straightforward, but if they go too fast around a curve, they may wipe out, and any mistake or risk they take is countered by ‘heat’ cards which are useless and gum up their deck. Given they’ll cycle through this deck multiple times per game, this is a true ‘press your luck’ element that must be managed – and feels appropriate to the game.

I don’t like most racing games, but I do love this one. The reason I like it is because of the speed. While there are a lot of considerations (especially as you add in game modules and explore career mode), you never get to a point where this game is slow. Players are making quick decisions, seeing quick results. It helps that no mistake is so disastrous that you can’t work your way back into things, and all of this results into a game that has the fast flow and aura of an actual car race.