Magical Athlete

I love it when a game comes back around. Sometimes it’s a classic getting a new version to modernize it, other times it’s a relative unknown getting a refresh, and there’s always the rare case that someone finds themselves in a publisher and has a secret favorite game that they’ve always wanted to bring back. It’s a lot of fun. This isn’t Magical Athlete’s first time on the track, but as any player of the game knows, it’s not about winning the first race, it’s about winning the most overall. Here, each racer has a unique (and, frankly, strange) ability that you have to either utilize or deal with to collect the most points over four races.

The Committee does have a soft spot for a weird experience, and Magical Athlete boasts some of the weirdest characters in the business, from a huge baby (appropriately named “Huge Baby”) to the ominous M.O.U.T.H. Magical Athlete boasts a simple core loop to make up for the wild character abilities, so players need to focus on getting to the end and not getting distracted or overtaken if they want to win. A bright and engaging art style is never a bad move for an Early Gamers title, either, and the combination of strange, engaging, and unforgettable really helped Magical Athlete bring home the win for this year’s Early Gamers category.

What Our Committee Is Saying

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Photos courtesy of Jonathan H. Liu. All rights reserved.