Space Racers Preview

Irreducible Games made their way into our world about a year ago when they brought the card game Full Sun to our table. That game gave us a unique twist on trick-taking, with a neat theme as well. So when they reached out to us again to preview their newest game, I knew we had to check it out. Space Racers is in a completely different category than Full Sun, but it still packs quite a punch!

Disclaimer: We were provided with a prototype copy of Space Racers for the purposes of this preview. What you see pictured below might vary from the finalized production copies. -L

Space Racers is a racing game in which players are attempting to pilot their UFO’s through the galaxy to be the first across the finish line. The gameplay and rules are pretty simple, but figuring out the best route is what will keep you on your toes! To setup for a game, you first need to clear off a 30″x30″ area of your table, with at least the bottom edge going right up against the edge of the table. No need to bring out a tape measure – each Shooting Star in the game is 10″ long, so just use all 3 end-to-end to help you map out the play area. When you have one side measured out, use a Flag to mark the corner, and repeat with the other corners. Once your play area has been mapped out, it’s time to build your Spacetrack! Choose one of the four Spacetracks included in the rulebook, and set up the components in the play area accordingly. Place the UFO’s in their starting positions, give each player the 4 movement paths in their player color, and the game is ready to begin! Pictured below is the starting setup for the Milky Midway Spacetrack.

Space Racers is played over a series of turns in which players are trying to move their UFO through the play area without crashing or falling off the edge. Your turn is broken down into 3 steps: Choose a path, Orient the path, and Move along the path. To start, select one of your 4 available movement paths to use – once you select a path, you must use it! Next, orient the path any way you want – flip it, spin it, turn it, whatever it takes to get your UFO from Point A to Point B. And finally, move your UFO along the path! Check out the picture below to see how the Green player used their chosen path for that turn.

If you are able to move your UFO to the end of the path without crashing into any obstacles (Shooting Stars, Planets, Comets, other UFO’s, etc.) along the way, the move is successful and your ship has made progress! If your chosen path puts you on a collision course, however, your UFO does not move, and your turn is now over. If you were able to successfully move your UFO, set aside the movement path just used, and repeat the above steps with one of your remaining paths. Continue this process until either: you Crash and end your turn, you use all 4 movement paths, or you decide to stop your turn. The round moves to the next player, and the game continues as such until one player’s UFO has crossed the finish line!

At its core, Space Racers is actually a pretty straight-forward and simple game – get your UFO to the finish line first. But boy oh boy is accomplishing that trickier than you’d think! This is a really good test of your spatial perception, as you try to figure out how each movement path works in different orientations with the various obstacles littering the Spacetrack. You can place the paths on the table to test out how each orientation works out, but for a more advanced game you can outlaw ‘pre-measuring’ and really see how good you are. Not only that, but each UFO has a different set of movement paths – they are not the same shapes for every player. So a move that works for you may not even be possible for an opponent, based on the movement paths available to them.

One particularly neat element of the game is the Crashing mechanic. If your path crosses over an obstacle, that is a Crash. But depending on the type of obstacle you crash into, sometimes a Crash will remove it from the game. Thus clearing your path for next turn to use the same movement path. So Crashing isn’t always the worst thing in the world, as it helps declutter the Spacetrack. But then again, if you Crash and remove an obstacle, you just cleared a potential path for your opponents. One other thing I really like is that whatever movement path you pick, you have to use it – no switching them around if you figure out you don’t have a viable move with the path you chose.

I’ll touch on components for a minute, even though I only have a prototype copy of the game to go on. That being said, the cardboard components are all thick and sturdy, and the artwork is thematic. Really no complaints from me about components, but this game doesn’t require anything too fancy to begin with. My prototype comes from TheGameCrafter, and is just another testament to their high quality products!

All in all, I would have to say that Space Racers is a pretty fun game. It’s easy to teach, learn, and play, but it will keep you coming back for more. Whenever I finish a game, I am ready to immediately try again and see what I could do differently this time. Or to try again with one of the other UFO’s to see how I could manage their different movement paths. This isn’t a huge brain burner, but it will definitely keep you engaged throughout the entire game. It’s a nice, light family game, and I see it making an appearance at some of my game nights. I can’t wait to see what the final production copies will look like, and I look forward to following its progress on Gamefound when it launches there in a couple of weeks! If you’re looking for a neat little game to play with the family, I would definitely tell you to check Space Racers out. You won’t be disappointed!