How a game is presented to us can do a lot for how approachable it seems. Cover a board in symbols and the game might be great, but it looks intimidating. Fill it with plastic miniatures and, environmental considerations aside, the sea of grey can baffle. We all know, and some of us love, the drab board of a euro, or the brown and green of yet another fantasy setting. Contrast those productions with that of Joyride.
Joyride spins out of Rebellion Unplugged with chrome hubcaps, a street art paint job courtesy of Pye Parr, and a horn that plays the latest pop hits. It pulls up alongside, slams open the door, and asks you how far, and how fast, you want to go. The people asking are designers Duncan Malloy and Pete Ward.
Joyride is a game about racing and battling around a track. The first thing you’ll be drawn to in whichever of the configurations you buy this game in, are the cars. The colourful tokens and hex covered boards are great. The dice are wooden and just the right size. But the cars are a perfect component. You just want to pick up these chunky wooden pieces, push them around a track, and make engine noises as you do so. They demand to be played with.
The gameplay itself is something akin to a Rally GT race with some Mario Kart style flashes. The core of this is a dice powered movement system. Yes it is basically a roll and move game, but hear me out.
You car has 5 gears. If you are in gear 3 then you have 3 dice, gear 4 you have 4 etc. As the starter’s gun fires you are all in 2nd gear and rolling 2 dice to how far off the starting line you get before the race starts proper. You take those 2 dice, results showing still, and place them on your player board. Each dice is six-sided and reads 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3.
When it comes to your turn, your task is to manipulate these dice. First you can choose to lock one or more of the dice. Locked dice will then move you that much in the direction your bonnet is pointing. Forward you zoom, with a turn left or right to meet a new edge of a hex at the start if you want.
Now the gears. You can shift up or down by one gear. Doing so adds or substracts a dice from your pool. Then you will roll any dice that are not locked and move forward that amount. You can steer here if you didn’t steer during the locked dice step of your turn, or steer again if you are in gear 2.
After you finish your move all your dice are returned to the rear view mirror that acts as a holding area for them. Each one still showing its current result. Learning to manipulate these dice is key to crossing the finish line before anyone else.
Can you see the ways you can do this? You could lock a 3 repeatedly, keeping a good steady, if fast, pace. If you want to slow, you have to have dice to remove from your pool, so maybe you can’t lock as many this turn as you would like. You can push up a gear to get more dice, hoping that it takes you past your competitors and not into a wall! Effectively you are managing your own level of risk and reward and it feels fantastic.
Turns are quick and engaging with everyone around the track invested in how each dice roll comes out. Each player is trying to make their own way around the track, hitting the checkpoints in order. There isn’t a set route to do this on each board. You’ll get ramps to jump off, obstacles to avoid, and barriers to swerve. Yes there is a track, but you can go around it anyway you want, just as long as you hit the checkpoints in order. The only component I felt was missing from the game was something to track exactly which checkpoint I was going for next as it was sometimes easy to forgot amongst the fun of racing.
The two major obstacles to you coming first in Joyride are your own hubris and the other players.
As you tussle for position you are going to get in each other’s way. Sideswiping, rear ending, head on collisions, and all manner of real-world traffic violations are actively encouraged here. They all have their place in getting you to the finish line while everyone else is spinning out of control. Then we get to the items.
Depending on the setup of your race you’ll pick up items in one of two ways: passing through certain checkpoints, or picking them up off the track Mario Kart style. These could be anything from a handy dose of Nitro to a Rocket you can launch at other players. You get a variety of possibilities in the box and you only use a small selection each race.
Some of these items, and the collisions, can cause damage to your car. Whenever you are damaged you can choose to lose access to some gears, weapon pickups, or some of the slots that allow the locking of dice. No matter how much damage you take, you can always limp along so you are never out of the race.
Alongside items each car has 3 abilities that you can use to manipulate dice and how you move. In the base game these are the same 3. You can also use powers that are specific to each vehicle, giving some weirdness and asymmetry.
Each vehicle has its own theming. From a futuristic e-car driven by a robot, to a station wagon piloted by a pirate, there is a vehicle that will appeal to everyone. Each one has its own set of powers and they all feel interesting and unique.
Joyride is an absolute explosion of colour, and I would understand if you find that overwhelming. To help the player boards and cars have a high contrast side, letting you dial down the graphics a bit to make the game more pleasant to play for you. It is this sort of accessibility consideration that makes Joyride such an excellent production.
Joyride is big, bold, and brash with a central mechanism that is straightforward and fun. Manipulating the dice in surprising ways has never failed to entertain and delight me. Joyride has a toy-like quality. It wants you to play with it. To pick up its pieces and drive them around the track making engine noises. To rejoice in the successes and failures of every dice roll, no matter if they are your own or not. Strap in, and put your foot down. This one is going the distance.
I played a friends copy of the Turbo edition of Joyride alongside a demo at Tabletop Scotland
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