Players: 2-4
Playing Time: 45-90 minutes

Summary of the Components

Bridgetown Races comes in a bookshelf box containing: a map; a cardboard transportation disc; plastic racing flags to place on that map; wooden pawns to represent the racers and their modes of transit; player mats to show completed bridges; and a few other doodads.

Quality: The cardboard bits are all nicely linen-textured, the wood bits are alll hefty, and everything is produced well. 5 out of 5.

Beauty: The artwork on Bridgetown Races is playfully cartoony and generally attractive. 4 out of 5.

Usability: In Bridgetown Races you're racing around a maze of streets to collect colored flags in specific colors. This results in two usability elements.

On the one hand, you have colored flags which are matched to colored modes of transport. The colors match very well and thus it was always easy to always know what flag corresponded to which transit type.

On the other hand you have streets that include overpasses and underpasses which you need to move about. Though they're not confusing when you carefully look at them, the underpasses and overpasses don't stick out enough and thus didn't scan that well. We occasionally had people missing how those connections actually worked over the course of the game. Nonetheless, this problem was relatively minor and everything else worked well. 4 out of 5.

Theming: The theming of the game doesn't actually match entirely with its mechanics. According to the background story, you're supposed to cross every bridge, but in actuality you need to cross bridges using specific types of transportation to secure flags of eight types. I also had some qualms with how the speeds were laid out for different types of transport. Buses are said to be the same speed as cars, for example, while street cars are almost twice as fast. Any rider of public transit can tell you that neither of these is true. Overall, the idea of racing about town using a variety of transportation is carried off pretty well, but these nitpicks (and a few others) did force some of our players to suspend their disbelief. 3 out of 5.

Overall: Though usability and theming could be improved, Bridgetown Races is overall a nicely produced game with lots going for it. I've thus given it a "4" out of "5" for Style.

Summary of Play

The object of Bridgetown Races is to collect 8 differently colored flags from 8 different bridges, each time by using the appropriate type of transport to cross the bridge.

Setup: At the start of the game, a blue (streetcar) flag is put on the Iron Bridge, which is the only bridge that a streetcar can cross. Random colors of flags are put on other bridges.

Then, play begins.

Choosing Transit: Each turn, each player will put three of his pawns on the transportation disc. In the main, it contains types of transport, from walking (1) to streetcar (5). However, it also has three first-come first-serve special power boxes: swap, first, and double. Players can effectively sacrifice one of their three transports for the round to get a special power.

Making a Move: Next, each person takes one of there transit moves by removing one of their pawns from the transportation board, then moving their racer an appropriate number of spaces, which is: the speed of transit (1-5) plus the number of other pawns on the same transit (0-3).

Special Rules for Transit. Most of the forms of transit work the same, but a few have special rules: walkers can walk up and down between overpasses and underpasses, while streetcars can only move on specially marked streetcar lines.

Collecting Flags. To collect a flag you must move over a bridge using the same color of transit as the flag. Thus, for example, buses are red. To collect a red flag, you must move over it using a bus.

You can only keep one flag per bridge. If you collect a second one, you must get rid of one.

Special Actions. Remember those three special power space on the transit disc? You can use any one of them as you take a normal move. "First" lets you go first on a round of moves (e.g., before the actual first player); "swap" lets you switch two flags; and "double" multiplies the base speed of a transit by two (e.g., 2-10).

Ending a Round: Flags are only restocked at the end of a round, which can make it really important to watch what your opponents are doing--and either choose flags that aren't in contention or else get to them first. Afterward the player with the least flags starts the new round.

Ending the Game: If someone manages to get 8 colors of flags, they win. Else, the player with the most colors of flags at the end of the game is the winner.

Relationships to Other Games

Bridgetown Races is a racing game, but it's a fairly unique one, thanks to the fact that you may visit the eight milestones in an order and that a lot of the game comes down to the tactics of individual turns.

The Game Design

Bridgetown Races is a rather clever tactical game design, with all that ensues.

On the one hand, that means that you can make thoughtful decisions within an individual turn. There's a high level of player interaction created by the fact that other players can potentially take the flags that you're going for. Thus, you must watch the modes of transport that they're taking and react accordingly.

Together the tactics and the need to second-guess other players creates a compelling game experience that's only improved by the special forms of transit within the game, like the streetcar.

On the other hand, there's real opportunity for analysis paralysis as players try to figure out how to use their three forms of transit over the course of a turn to capture as many flags as possible.

I also think that Bridgetown Races was slightly underdeveloped. For example, the first player is determined by least flags, while the winner is determined by least colors. There also isn't a tie breaker for when multiple players end the game with the same number of colors of flags.

Despite any blemishes, Bridgetown Races is generally a thoughtful racing game that exceeded my expectations. I've given it a "4" out of "5" for Substance.

Conclusion

Bridgetown Races is a light racing game that's both thoughtful and tactical. If you enjoy a bit of meat in your shorter games, Bridgetown Races will definitely meet your needs.