The front of the box.
Sonic the Hedgehog: Battle Racers[1] is a board game released in 2019 by Shinobi 7 and designed by Benjamin Yamada. It is a miniatures racing game for 1 to 5 players themed around the Sonic the Hedgehog series.
Battle Racers was crowdfunded through a Kickstarter campaign. The base game includes Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy as Racers. In addition, there were meant to be four Boss expansions and thirteen Racer expansions that add additional characters.[1] However, the majority of those expansion packs were never released, as development of the game would be put on indefinite hold.[2] Those characters can only be obtained through the original crowdfunding campaign.
Product description[]
- Burst into action with Sonic the Hedgehog: Battle Racers! Select your Racer, choose your route, and fight your way to the Finish while avoiding opposing Racers and a variety of dangerous obstacles. Control your Speed, use your Abilities, and activate your special Power to collect as many Rings as you can in an amazing race.[1]
- Based on Sonic the Hedgehog, the world-wide video game phenomenon, Sonic the Hedgehog: Battle Racers allows you to take on the role of Sonic or one of his many friends and rivals in a strategic race through a variety of exciting locations. The course changes with every race, so no two games are alike![1]
Development[]
Shinobi 7 first announced Sonic the Hedgehog: Battle Racers in January 2018,[3] and a Kickstarter project was launched on 7 February 2018.[4] The initial funding goal of US$50,000 was reached on 12 February 2018, and the campaign ended on 2 March 2018 with a total of US$138,351 raised from 1,085 backers.[4] Following this, an additional US$147,501 was raised from 1,150 backers through an Indiegogo InDemand campaign that ran until 14 May 2018.[5]
Battle Racers was planned to be shipped out in October 2018, but multiple delays, including manufacturing issues, meant that backers of the project first started to receive their pledges in October 2019.[6] The base game became available for purchase outside of Kickstarter in December 2019.[7] Out of the additional seventeen planned add-on packs, only the Dr. Eggman and Shadow Boss expansions would be made available for purchase, as further development of the game was put on indefinite hold in 2020.[2] In addition, during the crowdfunding campaign, a Super Sonic Racer was offered as a Kickstarter-exclusive, though most of the Racers are now exclusives as well due to the aforementioned hold on development.
Gameplay[]
In Sonic the Hedgehog: Battle Racers, players race each other while collecting Ring and Badnik Tokens. The game ends when someone crosses the Finish Line, and the winner is the player with the most combined Tokens.
At the beginning of a game, after setting up the game board with Track Sections and various Tokens, every player is dealt four Agility Cards. Another four Agility Cards are placed face up for all players to see. Each round, every player selects a card from their hand, and then the cards are resolved in order by descending Priority Score. Cards have an optional Action, as well as a mandatory Movement, which includes "Run", "Jump", and "Run or Jump". After a card is resolved, it is discarded, and then the player draws a new card from one of the four face up cards. That face up card is then replaced with a card from the deck. After every player's card is resolved, a new round begins with new Agility Cards. Rounds continue until a Racer crosses the Finish Line.
In addition to racing other players, there is an alternative gameplay mode called "Boss Mode". This also allows for a single person to play the game. In this mode, a Boss Card is resolved every round in addition to any player's Agility Card, with Priority Score order still being followed. If a Boss crosses the Finish Line, all players who have yet to cross lose the game. In Solo Mode, scoring is done through a similar Rank system as the Sonic video games, with Ranks ranging from S to E.
Contents[]
Base game[]
- 64 Agility Cards
- 50 Ring Tokens
- 40 Badnik Tokens
- 10 Buzz Bomber
- 10 Crabmeat
- 10 Moto Bug
- 10 Spinner
- 10 Green Hill Track Sections
- 6 Straight
- 2 Turns
- 1 Start Line
- 1 Finish Line
- 15 Rock Tokens
- 4 Miniatures
- 4 Racer Profiles
- 4 Speed Tokens
- 4 Badnik Reference Cards
- 1 Track Reference Card
- 1 Rulebook
Boss expansions[]
| Character | Contents |
|---|---|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
Racer expansions[]
Each of the thirteen individual Racer expansions includes one Miniature, Racer Profile, and Speed Token.
 Big |
 Blaze |
 Charmy |
 Cream |
 Espio |
 Jet |
 Omega |
 Rouge |
 Silver |
 Sticks |
 Storm |
 Vector |
 Wave |
Token replacement packs[]
Badnik Miniatures meant to replace corresponding Tokens.
- 10 Buzz Bomber Miniatures
- 10 Crabmeat Miniatures
- 10 Moto Bug Miniatures
- 10 Spinner Miniatures
- 20 Plastic Rocks
Kickstarter-exclusive[]
Super Sonic Miniature
- Super Sonic Racer
- Deluxe Box
- 50 Plastic Rings (in place of Ring Tokens)
Trivia[]
- Early on in the Kickstarter campaign, Metal Sonic's Track Sections were called "Mechanical Madness" instead of Metallic Madness, and Infinite's were Metropolis instead of Studiopolis.[4]
- Cheese is a part of Cream's miniature. However, Cheese's bow tie is missing, resulting in them looking like a generic Neutral Chao.
- The designs of Buzz Bomber, Crabmeat and Moto Bug are from Sonic Lost World, while the Spinner design is from Sonic Generations.
- Super Sonic's ability and power descriptions were chosen from Kickstarter backer submissions.[8] The winners of the contest were Dylan N. Atkinson and Michael "Stiv" Stephenson, who are credited on Super Sonic's Racer profile card.
- The Solo Mode Rank images in the rulebook are styled after the ones from Sonic Adventure 2, with an added purple S Rank.
Gallery[]
| Gallery |
|---|
  The base game.  Racer Profiles  Boss Profiles  Tracks  Early sculpts of some of the miniatures.  The complete set of miniatures. |
See also[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 SONIC THE HEDGEHOG: Battle Racers. Shinobi 7. Archived from the original on 15 April 2019.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Game support/development on indefinet pause. BoardGameGeek (6 September 2020). Archived from the original on 6 March 2021.
- ↑ Adams, Robert N. (27 January 2018). Shinobi 7 Announces Sonic The Hedgehog: Battle Racers. TechRaptor. Archived from the original on 6 March 2021.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Sonic the Hedgehog: Battle Racers. Kickstarter. Archived from the original on 6 March 2021.
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog: Battle Racers. Indiegogo. Archived from the original on 7 March 2021.
- ↑ Fulfillment and Shipping Update. Kickstarter. Shinobi 7 (18 October 2019). Archived from the original on 6 March 2021.
- ↑ Shinobi 7 Sonic The Hedgehog: Battle Racers Miniatures Board Game, (Model: MAY188742). Amazon. Archived from the original on 6 March 2021.
- ↑ Shinobi 7 (20 February 2018). Podcast, KS live and game design opportunity for our backers!. Kickstarter. Archived from the original on 7 March 2021.