Today, Portal Games announced Crazy Karts from designer Charles-Amir Perret. Crazy Karts is a fast-paced racing game for teams of two in which each player controls specific actions of their kart, but they cannot communicate with their teammate. One player controls the brakes and turns, while the other player speeds up and fires the cannon. Teams must out maneuver their opponents, dodge obstacles, grab power-ups, and avoid smashing into the walls, all without talking!
In Crazy Karts, teams of two pair off to race to the finish line and must coordinate their actions without communicating. Each round, players draw cards from their team deck and assign them to the various actions on the cart: accelerate, brake, turn, and shoot. Each player is in charge of only two of these actions and the cards they assign to their actions are not know to their teammate. After all cards have been played, actions are revealed and executed. If they coordinated their actions, they may advance down the track. If not, however, they may end their turn in disaster by crashing into obstacles, walls, or other karts!
Like most Portal Games titles, Crazy Karts includes 4 unique factions for teams to choose from, each with their own unique power. If you are playing with an odd number of players, there is also the Lone Wolf faction which allows a single player to compete with a unique set of skills and disadvantages.
“Each year we receive more than 50 prototypes. Some of them are bad. Some are soso. Some are good, but not good enough. Sometimes though, we receive something extraordinary. Like the prototype of Legacy: testament of duke de Crecy. Like the prototype of Tides of Time. Like the prototype of Crazy Karts; a game that is unique, original and extremely fun to play. Finding such a gem is one of the most exciting moments in my job,” said Portal Games CEO Ignacy Trzewiczek. “I vividly remember my first game of Legacy, my first game of Tides of Time and with no doubt, for years I will remember the afternoon when we played the prototype of Crazy Karts for the first time. We looked at each other, we smiled and we all – all people at the table – knew that we have something special here.”
Crazy Karts is for 3 to 8 players, ages 8 or older and takes approximately 45 minutes to play. The game includes 72 cards, 5 double sided track boards, 9 player boards, 4 power tracks, 4 speedometers, 4 player screens, 63 tiles, 4 wooden cart tokens with stickers, and a rulebook. Crazy Karts will be released at Origins 2016 in June and will be available worldwide at the same time. MSRP will be announced at later date.
