Alright folks, it’s time for another Review Rodeo and it looks like this go-around’s bulls are much more fit-for-show than the last ones. We’ve got three bona fide winners here and the only thing they have in common is that they’re all good games that are worth your time and effort in seeking out. This time, Review Rodeo is truly an international affair- we’re going to be stopping by Japan and Czechoslovakia before returning home to the US so buckle up, buck up, and get ready to game.

MAGICAL ATHELETE

That’s right; it’s ATHELETE, not ATHLETE. This is a tiny Japanese game from a couple of years ago that is nearly impossible to find in the US and the one retailer that does happen to have a couple of copies is selling it for nearly $50. And a $50 game this is not- you get a small pile of cards depicting various characters such as the Ninja, the Siren, the Witch and the to-be-feared Trader, a handful of cardboard stand-ups to represent them on a tiny board, and a d6. Oh, and a bunch of unprinted “natural” cardboard discs to represent points.

If you looked at the game and scoffed, I wouldn’t blame you. I’m no fan of anime and the supposed exotic allure of nonsensical Japanese pop culture is pretty much lost on me, but MAGICAL ATHELETE actually turns out to be worth $50 in terms of gameplay and that high Japanese weirdness is quite an asset. One of the nice things about the production is that the game includes its own paste-up stickers in English so there’s no need for clunky internet translations.

In the first part of the game, the players draft five of the game’s many characters on a sliding scale, spending a small budget to try to get together a winning team. The cards start at five, but eventually become free and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the best characters usually get purchased even when the price is high. But the crappy characters wind up going cheap in the sales, so it all balances out in the end. The catch is that each character has a rule-breaking special ability (a la COSMIC ENCOUNTER, of course) and some are definitely better than others. With a team assembled, it’s time to head to the races and put these titular MAGICAL ATHELETEs to the test. Each player secretly selects a character and puts them on the board

The test of these atheletes’ skills is a simple roll-and-move race. It’s a linear track and pretty much all you do is roll a d6 and move that many spaces. There are no special spaces, no funny business of any kind, and nothing to do other than move forward. Pretty dumb, huh? It is, but all those special abilities take the game from dumb to sublime in what turns out to be one of the most straightforward and universally appealing games I’ve played in a very long time.

Some characters get to move extra spaces when another character passes them, or they may have the power to move any other character to their current space. The Gladiator can challenge another player in the same space to a die roll, with the high roller getting to move ahead two spaces. The Siren attracts everybody toward her- whether they’re ahead or behind of her current space. They’re simple powers, but they add an awful lot of interaction, yelling, and cutthroat tactics that elevate the game far beyond its simplicity. Five races, each with escalating stakes for first and second place winners, result in the determination of the ultimate MAGICAL ATHELETE.

MAGICAL ATHELETE is either the best game I’ve ever played or the worst. It’s likely both. It literally has almost everything I like in board games: theme, interaction, and drama but with almost no filler, folderol, or rules burden. But it is also incredibly stupid and almost entirely devoid of any depth. It’s the kind of game where if you come to it looking high-minded top hat-and-monocle entertainment, you’ve pretty much already missed the point. It’s immediately playable and thrilling and at the most direct and base level possible before you start getting into “football in groin” style comedy, explosion movies, and the music of U2. The game demonstrates how highfalutin mechanics and supposed sophistication are not necessary ingredients for a greatness- the only essential element is fun. Highly recommended, but be aware that it’s strictly a 4-5 player game. I’d love to start a MAGICAL ATHELETE league in my prefecture.