presentation

Cool Runnings

Which ice cube melts when?

Real ice cubes for playing pieces! This announcement on the game box makes one curious and one suspects that speed might be a feature in the game. Yes, it is, it is a race to the finish and a question of whose ice cube melts when?

You use eight blue plastic cups to make the ice cubes. To play, each player takes a cap in one of four colors, puts an ice cube from a cup into his cap and combines cup and cap into a playing piece with the cap on top. With five board parts and a finish part you lay out a race track, and you begin with four cards in hand.

The active player plays a card from hand for movement and moves any cup+cap piece forward or backwards accordingly. Or, alternatively, he can use the card for one of seven types of attacks against another player – drip water on his cube, rub it, breathe on it or take it in your fist while the opponent counts “One ice cube ... ten ice cubes” for the duration of the attack; or you hide the cube in one fist and your opponent must guess which one, or you put a pinch of salt on the cube or tip it into water to be fished out with the cap. The attack can be deflected to yet another player by playing an identical card; if you cannot deflect, you must resolve the attack. Special cases on the track cause movement, a non-deflectable attack or protect from an attack. If your cube is completely gone, you are out of the game; the first on at the finish or the last one in play wins.

A crazy game idea, cute, witty and causing surprisingly little damage; the attacks are fun, and you vie less for reaching the finish then for keeping your ice cube frozen.

Players: 2-4

Age: 8+

Time: 30+

Designer: Olivier Mahy

Artist: Lusipa Salmon

Price: ca. 25 Euro

Publisher: Ravensburger 2018

Web: www.ravensburger.de

Genre: Race game, ice cubes

Users: For families

Version: multi

Rules: de en fr it nl

In-game text: no

Comments:

Cute, funny idea

Despite ice and water not much flooding

Keep a towel handy, all the same

Fun attack mechanisms

Compares to:

First game of its kind

Other editions:

Currently none

Chance (pink): 1

Tactic (turquoise): 1

Strategy (blue): 0

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 0

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 3

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 2