Robo Rally

Customer Reviews

It's a mad world! Review by Channing

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Zany!
Crazy!
Hysterical!

EVERY game of Robo Rally has at LEAST 2-3 laugh-out-loud moments from every player.

Robo Rally is a GREAT game for 2-8 players... yes that's right, EIGHT players can play this at once... How many games can boast that?

Players compete to race their robot around a factory floor race track and be the first to finish the race... or be the last robot standing.

The game mechanic is simple. Players are dealt 9 programming cards that perform various movements (Go forward 1,2,3, Go back 1, Turn Right/Left, U-Turn) and then have a limited time to place 5 of them down in their programing registry. Once all players have done so, each player flips their first cards over simultaneously and resolves it, then they flip over their second card simultaneously and so on and so forth. Any player that was unable to program their robot before time runs out has their programming cards chosen and placed at random!

Where things get crazy is when Robots start to bumb into each other and the factory floor board elements start to affect the robots (lasers fire, conveyor belts push you around, gears turn you). Robots rarely end up exactly where you programmed them to go.

To make matters worse, every time your robot takes damage, you are dealt less and less programing cards at the beginning of each turn.

This game is pure hilarity, and the hilarity is proportionate to the number of players playing. It can be quite funny to watch people stand up and start to turn their own bodies right and left as they try to envision which way their robot will go as they're trying to program their turn... and then they STILL get their right confused with their left.

Anyways, buy this game. It might be a tad light on strategy, but it makes up for it in fun, zany hilarity. (Posted on 2/23/12)

Cute and Hilarous! Review by Heero Fong

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RoboRally is one of those games which will leave you laughing every round. The idea is to move your robot through a factory full of pitfalls, conveyor belts, walls, and other obstacles to get to checkpoints. Your robot gets a certain number of movement cards at the beginning your turn which you then use to "program" your robot to move closer to your intended destination. Sound simple? It is easy until you have to factor then that there was other robots moving to which can "bump", damage, and turn your robot into a heap of scrap metal.

The strategy part is quite intriguing as you have to anticipate what other robots will do since they can thwart your programming. The game is incredibly fun when you have lots of robots as each turn essentially turns into pandemonium with robots blasting each other with lasers, bumping onto conveyor belts, program mistakes that lead your robot to a pitfall and other mayhem.

Overall, this game is easy to learn and just plain cute and hilarious. It's a really great party game! (Posted on 1/2/11)

Programming fun, but watch out for the runaway leader Review by Murray

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RoboRally is a racing game of sorts. The goal is to have your robot touch all the flags on the board in a specific order. In your way are hazards, course obstacles, and other players.

In order to make your robot move, you get a hand of movement cards each turn and can place them face down on the five slots of your programming board in any order. Typically there is a time limit for this part so that players will not be waiting too long for others to finish up. Players that run out of time simply go with whatever they had placed down.

Once all players have programmed their robots, the movements are resolved one slot at a time. At the end of each movement, robots automatically fire a laser from their front, hopefully damaging another robot. Robots can also bump into each other or push each other around so that the rest of their programming might produce unwanted results.

On the board are things like conveyor belts and square that rotate your robot at the end of each movement. These can help or hinder you depending on how well you program your moves.

RoboRally is certainly fun. It requires a lot of thinking, however, for the programming part. Resolving the programming typically takes a long time, especially with more players. It is doubtful that you will be able to finish a game in 30 minutes or less, especially if you combined boards to make a larger course. Another problem with the game is the runaway leader, as a person with the lead can sometimes be hard to over take once they get rolling. This can make the rest of the game seem even longer and uninteresting.

I personally enjoy RoboRally a lot. It is a different kind of racing game than, say, Formula D. It scales well to time and the number of players as you can add or remove boards from the course as you see fit in order to create a shorter or longer race to suit your mood. (Posted on 2/18/10)

Robo Rally: How it plays, and why I like it Review by Craig

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Have you ever seen the Battlebots on tv? Go to www.battlebots.com if you need a refreasher. In a nutshell, Robo Rally is basically the board game version of battlebots.

The game accomidates up to 8 players. Each player dictates the movement of their robot (s) by filling up the 5 slots in the robot's register with movement cards. The movement cards are simple (forward 1-3, backward 1, left turn, right turn, u-turn). The players plot out their robot's movement by placing the movement cards in a particular order in their robot's register. Once that stage is completed, each robot will follow their movement orders step by step. This is where the fun happens. The robots interact with each other in unsuspecting ways (the more robots crammed into one area, the more chaotic). The bots will end up pushing each other and shooting each other (sometimes to the death). In addition, each arena has a different maze of walls, bottomless pits, lasers shooting out of walls, moving walls, convayor belts, and rotating gears that your robot must navigate. Your robot usually doesn't end up where you want it to!

The game comes with 4 sets of two-sided arenas (8 arenas in total). You can mix and match the arenas as you please. This creates the environment in which the robots will fight/race.

The beauty of this game is in the various types of games that you and your friends can play. The game is designed to be very versatile regarding gameplay. You can play capture the flag, you can race, you can play an assortment of individual or team games, or your robots can just fight with each other to the death.

There is a clever system that measures the amount of damage each robot has endured. As your robot takes damage (damage is usually via lasers, but there are other sources of damage too) you'll be delt less movement cards from which to choose in subsequent rounds, and therefore find it increasingly difficult to program your robot's movement. If you suffer enough damage, the movement registers begin to lock, and you will have no choice at all in which way your robot moves. Eventually your robot will die if given enough damage.

There are other components in the game like option cards, power-down's, and repair sites. Option cards represent add-ons to your robot. You can get all sorts of different add-ons that customize your robot. Each add on will benefit you in different ways. To power-down is a two turn process that attempts to restore your robot's health (and the players ability to move the robot more freely). When you declare a power-down you are leaving your robot to shut down and restart, during which time your robot cannot move (unless it is pushed, or is located on a conveyor belt or turn gear, or by a moving wall). Your robot must endure a round in which it is a sitting duck. If it survives, it gains back full health and movement capabilities minus any damage it took while being powered down. Repair sites allow you to remove one damage from your robot provided the robot ended its last (5th) movement on the site. Some sites will also give you an option card to outfit your robot with something cool.

There are two downfalls to this game. The first is that the game is not nearly as fun with two people as it is with 5 or more. This is simply because the more robots you have, the more chaotic, the more fun. The second downfall is that when you are playing a race style game, there can be a tendancy for runaway leaders.

I love this game. It looks, feels, and plays great. If you don't have a problem getting a decent sized crowd to play with you, you will never get bored with this game. The game has simple mechanics, so it is not hard to play or understand. That fact usually helps when trying to gather 5-8 people to play. Young and old will be excited when you sit down in front of this one. Cheers. (Posted on 2/14/09)