Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Right On, WizKids!

Ok, technically they're the competition, but that's not how I look at things.

WizKids sent me two booster packs of their NASCAR game, Race Day in the mail today. I totally didn't expect it, and I'm not actually sure why they came, but came they did.

Race Day is a Pirates-esque game, with die cut plasti-card cards that you use to build little NASCAR race cars. Also included are clear plastic damage 'bits', also die cut. They attach to the cars as they take damage. Cool! The game is played on a paper race track, ala Forumula De, which they somehow folded up into a trading-card game sized package.

What's really clever is the entire thing comes with literally everything you need to play, all in the size of a single (thick) booster pack. I played a two player game (what you get in a single booster), and found it light and enjoyable. It played very much like a dumbed down Formula De, as the only die rolled for movement is a 6-sider. Yes, they included a tiny, tiny, die in the pack.

The game's fine, but I'm really impressed that it showed up on my doorstep ready to play. How often do fully playable games show up like that? After a decade in the gaming industry, this would be about the first time, ever.

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