Robo Rally

Dear Ziaga
I disagree with your final assessment of Robo Rally. "Robo Rally is an interesting game idea, but it fails at actually being a good game. "
I, my friends and even my wife enjoy this game which i think is all that needs to be said to say a game is good. It is true that it can become a bit long and that luck is a huge factor in play. The fact that you compared it to Pachisi i find humorous in the absurd sense. When do you get to shoot at anything in Pachisi, change your pawns abilitys or decide the board layout and goals. The only thing they have in common is that they are both race games. A solution for the "Runaway Leader" is the out and back track where you have two or three boards in a row. The end goal being on the starting board and flags on each board. This makes the winning player have to pass the others on their way back giving everyone one last crack at them. The "Lack of interactivity" problem is caused by have a playing field that is to large for the number of players. I feel you should never have more boards than players.
While i would give it a 7 on the 1-10 scale you feel the game is not very worthy of play (3.7). There are many types of personalitys among players and this goes to show that there is no one game that will please them all.

Robo Rally is one of the best games out there! The fact is that it's not a strategy game, which seems to be the game of choice for the people in this forum.

The luck factor which was brought up in this thread... don't get me started. This game's mechanics are even less about luck than the die rolling thing, and we all know where that discussion went.

I will agree that the game can take a long time, perhaps too long sometimes. This isn't much of a problem though, as it's completely up to the players which boards to use, how many, and where to put the checkpoints. More checkpoints/boards = longer game.

I'd argue that the "runaway leader" problem is mitigated, as you say, by arranging the boards and checkpoints to increase interactivity- as well as keeping the game short. I think the longer a game of Roborally drags on, the more pronounced any runaway leader problem can become.

Keeping the game short (this is relative to the number of players, and the players' experience as well) basically solves any problems it may have (runaway leader, game length). I admit that longer games tend to break down and even I lose interest in them (unless maybe I'm winning or in 2nd).

The other important point to note is that Roborally has an "alternate path to victory" kind of thing built in. You can choose to fight it out with people, making the game very interactive, or you can try and just race, getting away from other players and playing against the "clock" (less or no DIRECT player interaction, just try and navigate the boards faster than opponents). Both can be valid strategies and both can be a lot of fun.

As for the random element, there is a great deal of control over the arrangement of the cards, and your board position. The fact that you get less cards after taking damage isn't a problem, it;s an incentive... you don't WANT to take damage, or if you do, you have to be willing to either accept the more difficult movement options, or plan to recoup on a wrench or power down. I've seen clever players power down after stepping onto a convenient conveyor belt and barely lost a turn while getting fully healed!

Robo Rally is a great, fun game. It is not the "heavy strategy game" that some of the German games are, but it's still very strategic (mostly tactical I guess), very competetive, and very fun to play (I recommend a short, compact game). I have never tried the 2-robots-per-player thing, but it sounds like a lot of fun. I would be concerned that the programming turns may take too long though- but the challenge would be a blast, especially if your robots could hurt each other!

- Seth