Heat: Pedal to the Metal

Designer: Asger Harding Granerud, Daniel Skjold Pedersen

Artist: Vincent Dutrait

Published: 2022
Players: 1-6
Playing Time: 30-60 Mins
BGG Rating: 8.0
BGG Ranking: 41

Publisher: Days of Wonder

Mechanisms: Deck Building, Hand Management, Push Your Luck, Race, Simultaneous Action Selection, Solitaire Game,

Sleeves: USA 56x87mm

Game Description:

Based on simple and intuitive hand management, Heat: Pedal to the Metal puts players in the driver's seat of intense car races, jockeying for position to cross the finish line first, while managing their car's speed if they don't want to overheat. Selecting the right upgrades for their car will help them hug the curves and keep their engine cool enough to maintain top speeds. Ultimately, their driving skills will be the key to victory!

 

Drivers can compete in a single race or use the "Championship System" to play a whole season in one game night, customizing their car before each race to claim the top spot of the podium. They have to be careful as the weather, road conditions, and events will change every race to spice up their championship. Players can also enjoy a solo mode with the Legends Module or add automated drivers as additional opponents in multiplayer games.

 

 

Quick play overview:

Players will simultaneously select cards from their hands and then move their car equal to the total sum of the played cards. Continue like that till you reach the finish line (2 or 3 times, depending on the circuit). Sounds easy? It is! Sounds boring? It's not, because…

 

Players will be able to shift gears (gear number allows you to play that many cards/turn, also lower gears will allow the player to cool off their car, by removing heat cards from hand), slipstream on opponents getting additional movements or even burn their tires through corners (by adding heat cards to their decks).

 

With a limited number of cards in your deck and a limited amount of heat cards that will clog your hand, players will soon realise that maybe they shouldn't go too fast into every corner. If a driver overshoots the limit of the corner and cannot add the required number of heat cards into their deck, they crash which is not game ending, but it is BAD!

 

 

 

Final thoughts:

The simple mechanism of adding heat cards to your deck by pushing your car to the limit is fun. The future you will have to solve the problem of cooling off the car or facing worse and worse hands down the race.

 

Add to this concept the upgrade cards that players can draft before each race to have a bit different decks and you have a very interesting race (usually) till the last corner.

 

The championship game mode where you combine points and upgrades from all the races, elevates this game from a wonderful family type of game, into a »every turn matter« experience.

 

 

FINAL SCORE:

Gameplay & How often I want to play it:10/10

Very simple deck building that allows such interesting decision during most of the corners. Playing on the edge of spinning out will create wonderful memories.

We plan to play several championships before we give up on this game.

 

Art & Graphic Design:

The art and graphic design bring up an old era of racing. A beautiful presentation.

 

Rules & Complexity:

Such simple rules that can be explained in a few minutes and yet there is plenty of space for interesting decisions.

 

Theme & Mechanism fit:

One of the few racing games that really make you feel like you are driving on the edge of your car's possibilities.

You will hear tires screeching during every game play 😊

 

Fun & Replayability:

This game will bring out the »OOOOOHHHHHS« and »AAAAAHHHHS« from everybody at the table.

There are 4 circuits and tons of upgrade cards to choose from and yet there isn't much to explore in this game. The real meat of the game is the player vs. player factor and every game will feel different and interesting enough.