Funnier thing: at this moment, all the zones represented in this game are also present in Mania. I understand how do you feel, since I wasn't as impressed with Mania as others were, but I can't get why are you so disappointed. I won't be asking though, since that's a different topic and I kind of remember you sharing your impressions about it in said topic.
I'm generally fine with "graphical side" of Mania (although I admit that there is something inside me, that I'm starting to dislike things which are so "intrusively" and intensively praised by many people), so presence of mentioned style on board is acceptable for me. The whole "disappointment" thing was rather because I've changed my preferences in the meanwhile (more details in Mania thread), while Mania was rather a glorified and beefed (technically) return to the past. Don't know why I was still expecting that Mania will provide me some fun... It didn't, I felt tired before I've finished the game. Which is not a good sign for such short game :P But anyway - all of these (fortunately) don't have influence on my reception of Battle Racers - I'm curious how will it work in practice and have hope that it'll bring a lot of fun.
If someone wanted to get this game with all the benefits of the Kickstarter campaign, but made that decision too late to make a pledge, BoardOx is running the game's pledge manager which I think it allows for everyone to purchase the game under the campaign's conditions. The Hyper Pledge, with a price of 150$, would have a price of above 400$ if sold on stores, but that's just an estimated number since some stuff is KS exclusive, starting with Super Sonic but not limiting to him.
Deserved bump for sad news: due to diverse circumstances in China, the game will be delivered to backers later than expected. They planned to start shipping in October, but the best new estimated time will be the end of the year or so, and only if nothing else happens. Besides that, I haven't updated this thread in the last months because there haven't been major news. They've been upgrading designs and models to pass the quality controls Sega imposes, and it seems like Sonic Team is involved in those because Sonic is their thing, but I don't think that's a close involvement, just the usual bureaucracy. *** Now that I'm around, I want to ask about the criteria for things that should go on the wiki when the time comes and I take care of this board game's page or at least its photos and scans. I know "everything" is the usual answer, but I need something more specific. For example, we could take all those pictures from the capaign and add them to wiki, but I think just a link to kickstarter would do, as they don't remove the sites for the finished campaigns, I think. That also goes for updates history, as they have a journal there. I'll scan the boards and similar things, and take photos of the miniatures as they come in the box, also taking photos of the boxes themselves both before opening and after doing it to show the blisters, etc. I think we could ask kindly to Shinobi7 if they want to provide pictures instead of relying on my scans, but I'd leave that to someone used to do this kind of things. Right now, I'm only worried about what should be saved from the campaign for the wiki, just in case, and if we should add a preliminary page now, since most of the info is already there.
(taking a nice big shovel to dig the thread) Finally, after huge delay and loong waiting, my game (Hyper Pledge) came to me! Sadly, I didn't had yet opportunity to play it, but I've made photo of every single figure inside (all characters + Badniks), if someone is interested, here they are: https://www.mediafire.com/file/umkk9h3g8in3ejw/Figures_Photos.zip/file My thoughts - well, big figures seems to be the best part. Those smaller are a mixed bag - some of them looks really nice (Sonic, Knuckles), some sadly have issue with too visible "mold connection" (like Super Sonic), and some have obvious flaws (just look at the Amy - those eyebrows/make-up, plus the fact that it's the only character who has second leg pulled way beyond the basis and it's standing not so well as others). Surprisingly, all badniks (despite lack of painitng) seems to be better made than some characters. I'm definitely going to share some impression from playing the game, but sadly don't know when I will have some opportunity.
I already have the photos and scans, I just haven't had time to prepare them for the wiki and write the article itself. I also have to write a "bug list" to post in on BGG where the game creator is writing errata and clarifications, it has a ton due to the instruction manual being oversimplified. The game itself is quite nice, it just needs bug polishing instead of a rushed code like its console bethren. XD
Most of the figures are nice, although there are some issues with over painting that you would redirect from such small pieces. From what I've seen, Big's nose is unpainted on all copies, which is a shame. But Knuckles seems to have got the worst deal in my set... o_________o
Oh man. Y'know, I was going to say how the wide mouth gives me Sonic Adventure vibes, but it's so wide that on second thought it reminds me more of Chip's mouth from Sonic Unleashed, haha.
Bumped because I finally made the wiki article. Almost a month later than intended, but here it is: Sonic the Hedgehog: Battle Racers About the front page review, I can do that, and a lot quicker than I did this one, but I don't think I have the necessary permissions to add content to the front page. In any case, if staff members are interested in it, I can write the text and send it to them.
If by any chances possibility to write review is still open, I would gladly write it. Shortly sharing my impressions - much better than I expected. Especially due to the general rule about how is performed move on the board, it still has some random element due to shuffling the agility cards, but the fact of making choice at every step is making it way more entertaining and engaging than games with throwing dice(s) as the main mechanism. My sister, who dislikes Sonic (both games and universe) said that it was good game and had very well impressions as well - which is IMO good indication, that it's not only for fans of the franchise/character. A shame though that some rules weren't precised as good as they were in presented in the internet FAQ and clarification - but other than that, it's a well made board game.
My apologies for not doing what I promised; long story short, due to IRL stuff, I went totally offline after Christmas Day among other things (mind you, not Christmas fault, just bad timing). After that, I had to recover from that blow and resume belated work I had to do, so, by the time I would have come back to do as told, I thought it was very late. Also, seeing that Martius offered himself to do the review was a relief, plus I've read it and I think it's more suitable for a public article than what I would have written. To put it simply, I went through many headaches to cover the gaps in the rulebook, so I would probably have put together a quite angry review. As an offer of peace, or maybe just because it's relevant to the topic, I'll show you some other work I did about the game: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2374797/my-own-unofficial-rules-revision That's a BGG forum topic I created where I posted my own compilation of revised and added rules so the game is fully functional, with yet a pending revision of the bosses as I've indicated on a post I just wrote there. Seriously, this game has as many bugs as any rushed Sonic videogame, so treat that as the unofficial day one patch it needed. Hope it helps. I say a couple more things on the new post, too.
Your wish is granted (big thanks for Nova for accepting review and making correction with stuff which I didn't find during my double-check)
