HEAT: PEDAL TO THE METAL (2022)

PLAYERS	TIME	DESIGNER	PUBLISHER
1-6	30-60 mins	Asger Harding Granerud Daniel Skjold Pedersen	Days of Wonder

In this 1-6 player racing game you’ll be using your personal deck of Speed cards to race around a track and finish first.

And all the while you need to keep a handle on those titular Heat cards because they will end up in your hand and clog it up.

On your turn you’ll decide on your cars gear (which dictates how many Speed cards you can play) and then you’ll go for it.

Going fast is the main objective, but there are several things in the game designed to slow you down. HEAT, it seems, has some thinking under its hood.

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Corners have limitations that prevent you going round them in fourth gear with your foot planted. Like in real life. You need to downshift and plan out your cards so that you don’t over shoot.

Heat is the main thing though. It’s all about risk and reward as you decide to push now but be encumbered later. Because to get rid of Heat cards from your hand of seven, you’ll need to slow down to cool down.

Perhaps instead you spend the first half of the race being conservative and only punch it to max speed when you can see everyone else’s cards are barely holding together.

This works well thanks to slipstream. A lot like FLAMME ROUGE, if you can trail close enough, you get a little boost. Enough to keep you in contention.

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But what of the whole package? Well, the game looks beautiful. The art across the entire production takes you back to a more spit and grease era of racing.

The game is also packed with modules to enhance the experience. From the best automa in board games that makes all games run at six cars a smooth experience, to Championship set up and car customisation.

HEAT: PEDAL TO THE METAL is my favourite racing game. All player counts work. It’s light, but modules add depth. It’s the whole package.