by gamerleaf

Full Review with links and Images can be found here:
Quick Look: Dungeon Kart
Designer:  Michael Xuereb
Graphic Designer: Matt Paquette & Co.
Artists: Erik Krohl, Jacob Ovrick, Ivan Vatrim, Gaetan Grey, Kieran Lampert, ThomasTeamHAS Visions
Publisher: Brotherwise Games
Year Published: 2024
No. of Players: 2-8
Ages: 10+ (5+ in our circumstances mileage may vary)
Playing Time: 30-60 minutes.
 
From the Publisher:

Race against your evil rivals in this fast-paced board game for 2-8 players, featuring the villainous bosses of Boss Monster! Dungeon Kart transforms the multiplayer mayhem of kart racing into a turn-based tactical tabletop experience. Play as one of the baddest Bosses around while using Spells to disrupt other racers, grab coins, and power yourself up! With a lot of skill and a little luck, you can cross the finish line first and show your opponent who’s Boss!
Disclaimer: The publisher provided the copy of Dungeon Kart. The opinions expressed in the review are completely my own.


Review:
You may remember that Brotherwise has made some games I have enjoyed immensely. While Boss Monster employs some great portable action, Overboss really scored big points with me over the past few years and even crept onto my Top 10 Favorite games of all time during 2023, especially given its family-friendly nature.

Given our addiction to Overboss, we reached out to see if Brotherwise had any review copies of their new Dungeon Kart game, which they kindly supplied. Being once again branded in the image and likeness of video games, Dungeon Kart attempts to recreate the classics such as Super Mario Kart and bring them to the table. It was our hope that somehow Brotherwise could somehow accomplish this feat without being too complicated, keeping the frantic nature of video game kart racers. Could they possibly succeed?

I know that a few other companies have tried, and for me personally, no company has yet brought home the bacon in terms of capturing the magic of video game cart racers. I am a big fan of Downforce, and know some “unofficial” Mario Kart variants for gameplay exist, but I have yet to try this, and again, even if I liked it, this add-on is again not on official product by any means, so prior to this review, I have been left in the lurch for a satisfying alternative to video game kart racing…


People who are familiar with the past entries in the “Dungeon” series of game from Brotherwise will immediately be at home with the familiar faces of their world. So King Kroak, Killa, Cleopatra, and the rest of the gang make another appearance with a few new additional characters to pilot their carts.

Players have the benefit of being able to (randomly) select different characters and karts at the commence of gameplay, each of which sport their own unique abilities and handling characteristics.

After gameplay order has been determined, players can choose a number of pre-designed track layouts for the game—and there are a lot of these, so do not plan on tiring for lack of abundance here. Obstacles are then randomly placed, and gameplay will begin.


Players start by either shifting up or down each turn (utilizing a handy gear-shift player board) which determines how many Movement Points they get for their turn. In a seemingly limiting design choice, players (usually) one space forward on the hexagonal-gridded boards per movement point—if you wish to turn, you can alter your kart’s angle of travel by 30 degree to change your direction, but you are generally able to do this only once per turn. The consequence of this has to deal with the fact that you must move your kart for as many movement points as you have, even if it means you have to crash into a wall or obstacle. So you do have to plan and think ahead, and realize that it is not always better to travel fast!

Player’s may also bump each other into obstacles while on the fly, obtain spells (akin to gaining question box power-ups in Mario Kart), launch fireballs, bombs and more. They can also utilize movement points to “drift” sideways one space once-per turn, or even utilize special character or kart moves that let players break rules that are normally in play.

Play continues until all players cross the finish line. If two players happen to cross the finish line during the same round, it is not the player who crossed first who necessarily wins, it is the one who retains the most Movement Points after crossing, so again, careful planning may be key to winning. 


What remains a strong point for Dungeon Kart is that just about anyone can be up and playing the game within mere minutes, with little to teach. Even our 5 year old can get in on the action (provided we initially explained how Spell cards function). 

In addition, Dungeon Kart eliminates a problem that I have had in recent years, and especially over the summer when I desperately needed an easy game that could handle a high player count. Sadly, I didn’t get a copy of Dungeon Kart in my hands until after the needed date, but it really would have come in handy for me! How many board games can you think of that support 8 players and allows for an evening of fun to seamlessly unfold? I can’t think of many that don’t sport a sharper learning curve than this, as well as bigger time commitment. Yes, I realize that so-called “party games” may address the ned for entertaining the masses, but we’ve never been fans of those, as they can seem overly pedantic.

And there are tons of track layouts and configurations to choose from.

But best of all, the game does feel like Mario Kart in a box.


Are there any criticisms of things we didn’t like about Dungeon Kart? 

A few.


First of all , while conceptually the ability to alter the direction of your kart adds some strategy to the game, it also means very careful orientation of game pieces is crucial to maintain integrity of the positions, as even a slight bump in the wrong direction can change the direction of a player, and if left unchecked / unnoticed, this can really mess things up for everyone at the table. If you have  players with butterfingers, it can be really vital to keep a close eye on everything, as a lot of pieces can be inadvertently jostled.

Along the same lines, I would have appreciated interlocking tiles, similar to Shadows of Brimstone, to keep map pieces from drifting apart during gameplay. Movement of map tiles can again cause pieces to shift and potential affect gameplay outcomes if people don’t remember exact positions of pieces prior to seismic activity.

It can occasionally be difficult to remember what “hero” obstacles on the map do to attack and obstruct players. There is a side reference fortunately, but it is sometimes possible to overlook these effects whirl in the midst of all the mayhem.

Lastly, some abilities and combinations of karts and characters feel a little useless. One character for example is the only one who can teleport to be the only character to get an item that is cleverly placed in the middle of a chasm on one map, but this benefit is derailed due to the fact that it still forces the character to crash. It would have been nice in this particular case to see this character be able to pull off the full stunt, rather having this spectacular feat ruined by a collision and speed reset. In other cases, the manual directly states that heavy characters utilizing certain karts in specific tracks will be at a disadvantage. It would have been nice to see better balance in the track design implemented in such cases.


Final Thoughts : https://everythingboardgames.com/dungeon-kart-review-by-jazz...
It is hard to reconcile the game’s greatest benefits with some of its drawbacks for me. On the one hand, Dungeon Kart’s ability to handle large player counts right off the bat coupled with its ease of learning makes it a no-brainer for many situations. However, the sometimes fiddly nature of components getting knocked around did not go unnoticed for us, and could occasionally put a damper on things for us. The game still remains fun at its core, and although it is not (at this time) a pinnacle of a simplified gaming experience like Overboss is for us, the fact that it can be employed as a mass crowd pleaser makes it an asset in our library, even though it may not always be one of our first go-to games of an evening.

Final score 7.75 /10 

Interested in what another reviewer here at Everything Board Games had to say?The check out Steven Foster's review of Dungeon Kart!

After reading Jazz's review, if this sounds like a game for you at the time of this posting Dungeon Kart is completely sold out on BROTHERWISE GAMES however another seller has the Kickstarter Edition available on Amazon. Check it out and get yours HERE.

Source: View source