Description

???????? (Battle Athlete) is a racing game from Japan. Players are athletes competing in a road race across mountains and valleys. But the course has obstacles and the players push each other around or use items to get the jump on the others. The first to the finish line is the winner.

The race course is made of large tiles placed in a line. The game has a starting tile, and five course tiles, of which four are used, and a finish line. The course tiles have a variety of icons; walls, pits, arrows and objects.

Players choose the turn order, and the last player puts their athlete where they like on the start line, then the next player and so on. In this way, the start player does not get an advantage.

Players roll dice and move their athlete. If they end up on an icon, or push another athlete onto one, the actions are completed.

Pits make a player fall back 2 places and miss a turn. Walls delay players, and arrows push them in the direction of the arrow. The ? icon lets the player draw an object card from the deck. These objects allow the player to make advances, or delay other players, or even change the position of the course tiles.

The first player to reach the finish line wins the race.

The designer Misaki notes that this was one of their earliest designs. It became the third game published by the doujin circle, but had been a car race game sent to a magazine five years previously. The prototype was made 15 years before 2009, making it 1994. The designer thought it was too good a game to waste and brought it back into production in 2009.
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