You know what I love? A game anyone can play, that is bombastically raucous and gets everyone yelling at plastic mascots in hot dog suits. I heard about Hot Streak on a podcast recently and just had to import it from the US. It may just be my new favourite party game.
What is Hot Streak? Have you ever seen those manic mascot races where people dressed in oversized animal costumes race frantically to the finish, often falling over each other? Well, it’s that with betting and shouting at your friends, a win-win in my book! Let’s race!
You know what I love? A game anyone can play, that is bombastically raucous and gets everyone yelling at plastic mascots in hot dog suits. I heard about Hot Streak on a podcast recently and just had to import it from the US. It may just be my new favourite party game.
What is Hot Streak? Have you ever seen those manic mascot races where people dressed in oversized animal costumes race frantically to the finish, often falling over each other? Well, it’s that with betting and shouting at your friends, a win-win in my book! Let’s race!
The Setup
The setup in Hot Streak is a breeze: drag the race mat from the side of the box (more on that later), line up the mascots on their spaces at the start of the course and deal out the number of cards required depending on player count.
Along with that, set aside all the betting tiles, give each player 3 additional cards, returning the rest to the box and you’re ready to fumble to the finish. I think it’s paramount that such a light, raucous game can be set up in minutes and Hot Streak definitely does that!
The Deck and Betting
Essentially, Hot Streak is a betting game, a betting game where the movement of the characters is governed by a pre-determined deck, which can be slightly manipulated by the players. Yes, the deck will be largely the same game to game but the little bit of control you have mixed with some of the hilarious card types makes this game manic, and it really fits the theme of the game.
So, before anything takes place the cards that will make up the deck are dealt randomly from the main deck, depending on player size. There are movement cards, fall over cards, turn around cards and even cards that swerve or move all characters. Looking at these cards and the three you have been dealt will ultimately determine what bets you will make this round.
All players will draft two bets from the six stacks of betting slips, in a snake-draft system. So, first to last, then repeat from last to first, with the last place player picking first in the second picks, essentially picking twice in the middle of the order. Of these six slips, four are related to the four racers in the race and two simply answer yes or no to a race-themed objective. Each time one is picked from the stack, they get less valuable and they also have a ‘Risky’ side on the opposite side of the slip.
You are essentially betting on who will do well, who won’t do well and the outcome of an objective. Your only other decision is whether to use the ‘risky’ side of each betting slip. The risky side gives better rewards but you may also lose if you are wrong, so like it says, ‘risky!’
What I love about this system is that even though, after looking at the cards, you think you know what will happen, you will inevitably be wrong. Players get to chuck in a secret card from their hand to spice things up and the order cards can come out, always makes you laugh and probably make you fail in your bets. Super.
The Race
After everyone has bet, all players pick a card from the 3 in their hand and add it to the race deck. The race deck is a closed economy now, with all other cards being returned to the box, creating a slightly different ecosystem, every time you play. Do you want to add a card that will help your bets? Or slip in a stinker that will hurt a few other players? The devilish choice is yours.
On to the race then, which is quick, easy and hilarious. One person flips cards, one person moves the racers and they will end up being placed 1 to 4, from the winner to the loser. The issue here is that the order of the cards and where the swerve and fall over cards appear massively change the course of the race.
If a racer gets a fall over card or another racer runs through them, they end up on the deck. On the deck means that they only move 1 space at a time and they risk being knocked out of the race if they get trod on or draw another fall-over card. This puts them in the last available space at the finish. It’s the same when a racer runs off the track, or is running too slow, as the track shortens with each re-shuffle.
That by itself is unpredictable and stupid but throw in turn-around cards and everything descends into chaos. If a racer gets a turn-around card, they do exactly that, turn around. They face the opposite way and start running backwards. That amazing move forward 3 card you chucked in, guess what? It came out after a turn around card Brian chucked in the deck secretly and all your plans are going down the drain. Hot Streak, it’s awesome!
It’s not all bad news though, one thing that is a given is that every character has a ‘recover’ card, which no matter the racer’s current state, knocked down, backwards or even knocked down and backwards, this card picks you up and faces you the right way. It’s always great when these cards save your racer and get you back into the mix.
After all 4 racers have placed, the bets get paid out and you move onto the next race. The only change here is that in the last race you can select 1 of your bets to double up on and this can certainly change the outcome of the race. It’s all quick, loud and very entertaining.
Components
Remember earlier when I mentioned the race track that slides out of the box, yep, it’s awesome! A full race track can be slid out of the side of the box and there is a little wheel to roll it back in. It’s absolutely superb.
Along with that, all the models for the characters are fully painted and beautiful. You can even see the little human eyes within the mascot costumes. The cards are great, the money, while being paper, kind of fits the betting style of the game and the box fits everything in and is beautifully made.
From a component standpoint, Hot Streak is a 10/10. Lovely figures, an awesome, yet gimmicky race track and a great storage system. No complaints here.
Final Thoughts
Hot Streak is getting a lot of buzz at the moment and I can see why. It’s quick, anyone can play and it’s complete madness. The random deck and unpredictable races really even the field between regular gamers and grandma and everyone can be great at it, or more often, bad at it.
The components are great, the rulebook is well written and the whole package just sings, especially in a party-game scenario.
I love Hot Streak and I cannot recommend it enough. Go Dangle!
Zatu Review Summary
Zatu Score
95%
