Robo Rally Review

Robo Rally a game of racing robot madness for 2-8 players from Avalon Hill. The aim is to race your robot across a factory floor, reaching a series of checkpoints before your opponents do.

Before the game starts a factory layout has to be chosen. There are about 30 different ones in the rule book and it is easy to make your own by selecting boards and checkpoint locations all players agree with.

Each player takes a robot record card, which tracks lives, damage, programmed moves and whether or not the robot is going to power down next turn. Robots, are then placed on the starting board, which connects to the main floor area and you are ready to go!

Each turn players are dealt a hand of nine cards (or less if their robot is damaged) with which to programme their robot. Each card represents a simple action such as moving forward 1-3 spaces, moving backward one space, rotating left or right 90 degrees or performing a U-Turn. From their random cards, players select five and place them face down on their robot record card in the order in which they are to be performed. As an added incentive to be quick, once the penultimate player has finished, a 30-second egg-timer is turned over. Failure to complete programming in this time results in any empty slots being filled at random!

Once all players are done they turn over the first card and perform the action upon it. If two or more robots would cross paths, moves are conducted in order of the initiative number printed on the card. This is important as robots can push each other, thereby wrecking a perfectly laid out plan! This process is then repeated for the remaining four cards, at which point the turn ends.

Of course, there is much more to the game than this, which is where the selection of track comes into it. Each board (there are 4, each double sided) depicts a section of factory floor filled with all manner of dangers which the robots have to navigate. Fast and slow conveyers, lasers, pits and rotating cogs are just some of the hazards to be overcome. Once each player has moved their robot according to the programme card, each element on the factory floor activates in order. Conveyers move you either one or two spaces depending if they are fast or slow, cogs rotate you 90 degrees and lasers cause damage if you are caught in their beam. Robots also have a laser which shoots out the front of them at the end of each turn and causes damage just like the factory lasers. Should you be unfortunate enough to get destroyed, your robot ‘regenerates’ at the last checkpoint or repair space you landed on. But each robot only has 3 lives before they are destroyed for good.

And this is where the game gains a great deal of its appeal. There is a great deal of skill in taking a hand of random cards, figuring how far you can get by using five of them, and working out the implications of landing on any of the obstacles in your path. The use of a timer keeps things ticking along nicely, otherwise players could be tempted to take all day plotting a single move, there is so much to take into account.

Damage can be crippling for your robot. Each point taken means you draw one less card, severely limiting your options. When you take more than four, your programme cards start to become locked in place, meaning you cannot change them until you are repaired. Fortunately a ‘Power Down’ option allows you to heal your robot fully, but doing so costs you a valuable turn. If you are near one and plot your move well, you could end up on a special repair space which allows you to remove one point of damage. Some of the repair spaces permit a player to draw from an upgrade deck, containing many items designed to give your robot a little edge. Fortunately, none of these are powerful enough to hugely unbalance the game, but they can tip things in your favour.

Unfortunately, the components let the game down slightly. The factory floor boards are nice enough, with their double sided nature giving scope for plenty of variety. The robot record sheets and reference cards, however, are printed on very thin card, meaning care has to be taken to prevent them being accidentally bent. A couple of robot models also look quite similar, which can lead to confusion during a game. One of the biggest drawbacks, I feel, is that the programme card deck is shuffled at the start of every turn. While this may not be an immediately obvious problem, the cards soon pick up little nicks, showing up clearly due to having black borders, and marks after a handful of games. If you want to play this game regularly, or just keep the frequently shuffled cards in good condition, I would recommend picking up some protective card sleeves. There are 81 programme cards and 26 upgrade cards. Suitable sleeves can be found here.

This aside, the game is tremendous fun and something most people will enjoy, given the opportunity, making it an excellent introduction to the world of hobby board games.

8/10

Review by Chris Walkley