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I love racing games! There's Flamme Rouge, Snow Tails and Thunder Alley to name but a few that I have played and enjoyed in recent months.
Street Kings, from Board to Deaths' Luca Vince Caltabiano, is a lot more like Fast and the Furious in looks than any other race game I own and I was keen to try it out.
Street Kings - Whats under the hood
I don’t know why but I was not expecting to find quite so much stuff inside the Street Kings box. Inside you will find the following components:
- An average size board that depicts the road you will be racing along.
- Six player boards that track your cars stats and your money.
- Four large cardboard tokens that depict car shows (a way of earning money).
- Wooden squares in player colours for use as trackers.
- Six wooden cars in player colours.
- Cards depicting cars from different classes.
- Location cards.
- Upgrade cards.
- Cardboard Finish line marker.
- First player token.
All the above components are of good quality and the artwork is the same as that on the box. The art is very reminiscent of the Need for Speed computer game franchise. All of the cars look super slick, with bright paint jobs, huge alloy wheels, lowered suspension and show-off spoilers all present.
These cars are a thing of beauty and wouldn't look out of place on posters dotted around your bedroom walls!
How does it ride?
Street Kings is very easy to set up and it’s just a case of:
- Placing the board in the play area.
- Shuffling each deck.
- For deck A, B and C of the class deck reveal a number of cards equal to the amount of players plus one. This sets up the dealership where you can acquire cars from later on. The remaining cards can be removed from the game.
- Dealing each player two D class cars.
- Giving player boards and cars of that colour to each player.
- Dealing each player three location cards and the deck is then placed on its spot on the board.
- The upgrade deck being placed on the board. You reveal an amount equal to the number of players plus one. This creates an upgrade store where you can buy parts that improve your performance.
- Placing car show tokens equal to the number of players minus one on the board.
- Placing the finish line marker on the row marked D (D is the class of car).
- Decide on first player and give them the token.
Street Kings is played in rounds and each round consists of four different phase’s:
- The first player chooses a car he owns which will determine where the race will end by moving the finish line tracker to there.
- Players then take actions which consist of:
- Going to the shop to buy upgrades.
- Going to the car show to get money.
- Going to the dealership to buy cars.
- Choose a racing location (these cards determine what stats your move your cars forward, more on that later).
- Qualifying for a race (when all cars have taken this action you start the race).
- The race takes place. When you reveal a location card it will have symbols on them that represents the attributes of your car. If you have a matching attribute then you move your car forward.
- Clean up and next round preparation phase.
Street Kings is quick to set-up and plays at a good pace. The focus here is more about your cars and its upgrades, compared to other race games, and the actual race is not the most important factor which makes a nice change.
There are ways that the weaker, slower cars can win depending on what cards are drawn so it is a little luck dependent.
Does it scream past the finish line?
Street Kings, like I said above, is a lot more Need for Speed than Gran Turismo but I think that’s what I needed. The arcade style feel really suited our group and the change of pace was needed. The quick turns before the actual race are the most important factor and buying upgrades, or being the first to a show, can swing the game in your favour.
However, a big downside to this is the randomness of the location cards. You can have the best car out of the group but if a card comes out that doesn’t have your attributes on then you will come last. Some may argue that stops a runaway leader but to me it detracts from the race feel somewhat.
The game's art is brilliant and really fits the theme its going for. The cars are all drawn well as are the component cards. The quality of the game's aging is good but the little wooden cars again detract from the theme. I would suggest buying micro machines as they would look better in my opinion but it’s not a game breaker.
Overall, Street Kings a fun game that has one flaw and that is the luck of the draw with location cards. Street Kings has stayed away from dice, but then not taken advantage fully as its replicated by a deck of cards instead.
Playing Street Kings has me excited to see what the next game, Neon Knights, will play like. Look out for it on Kickstarter on October 10.
If you are after a quick, fun to play game with a lot of theme then I recommend this game. If you are more of a simulation person, where you want skill to nab you the victory then I would stay clear.
