Category: Racing Games

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Downforce: Wild Ride – Expansion Review

Downforce Wild Ride Expansion Cover
Expansion Cover Sleeve. This expansion does not include a box – I appreciate that they don’t create undue waste!

Wild Ride is an expansion for the board game Downforce. You must have the base game to be able to play. We also have a review of Downforce without any expansions. The Wild Ride expansion adds a new, two-sided game board with totally a totally different play experience and elements on each side. Also included is one cardboard sheet with punch-outs to add to the board.

Downforce Wild Ride Punch Board Pieces
Animals and ramps included in Downforce Wild Ride Expansion

Aloha Sands

One side of the board is called Aloha Sands. Aloha Sands features ramps that cars can jump to zoom ahead of the pack. The expansion comes with actual little ramps you set on the board to simulate the jumps. Using the ramp has a few rules, but they are not cumbersome. A ramp can only be used if:

  • The number played on the speed card must be equal to or higher than the number on the ramp. AND
  • The car must have at least one movement left. AND
  • The landing space for the ramp is empty.

When a car cannot use the ramp, you simply must go around.

Downforce Wild Ride Aloha Sands Board before complete setup
Aloha Sands Board – Before Complete Setup

Savanna Stretch

Savanna Stretch is a completely different play experience than Aloha Sands. This time, wild animals are on the track and the cars must navigate around them. The wild animals are represented by cardboard tokens. Each token has a distinct shape. The rules for Savanna Stretch are also quite simple to learn.

  • Start with the animals in their spots closest to the starting line.
  • Animals block the space when they are present.
  • After the turn when the first car passes the line in front of the animal, move the animal to the next designated space on the track.
  • Empty animal spaces may be entered by cars like normal spaces.
Downforce Wild Ride Savanna Sands Board
Savanna Sands Board – Before Setup

The Dad Review

I really enjoy the base game and rank it pretty high among our racing style games. 

Aloha Sands

On the Aloha Sands side of the Wild Ride board, we are going off some ramps. While it doesn’t feel as good as my 10-year-old self launching off some sweet unsafe homemade dirt jumps as a kid, it is still fun and much safer. 

You should always be able to finish this course if you hit the jumps. I had the power card Cunning, which let me move my own car. I believe Cunning is the best power to have on this course, because there is a slight ‘take that’ mechanism at play here. If someone plays a card with your color car, they can bypass the jump and make you go the long way. However, if you have Cunning, you can take the path of your choice. Not being able to move your own cars can cause some frustrating moments. I know it did for Maci, but she didn’t pull the anger card I seem to use a lot. She kept her cool and I was proud of her for that.

Downforce Power Cards
Downforce power cards – Jake played with Cunning, which he thought was awesome (the rest of us, not so much!)

Savanna Stretch

On Savanna Stretch, we bring in some animals. Kinda like the cows in Mario Kart.  While I would have liked a standee version for the animals I understand you gotta keep prices low, which I appreciate. It’s difficult to warrant buying a $50 expansion sometimes, I’d much rather pay $15-$20 for a bunch of fun like this, so I will deal with no standees. Plus Maci can now design 3D models of the animals for school and us, win, win. This is another solid course. The animals move when triggered, so it can create blocking issues. On the other hand, when the animals move out of the way, the space they leave is a great way to zoom ahead.

I prefer Aloha Sands to Savanna Stretch, but I will say this is a great expansion and I would play anytime someone wanted to with no objection.  If you like the base game this is a solid investment and affordable.

For a family ranking, I give it a 9/10.

The Mom Review

I really enjoy the Wild Ride expansion for Downforce. It brought some fun new elements to the gameplay without the headache of way too many new rules to remember. Of the two sides, I highly prefer Aloha Sands (with the jumps). It made the game move along quickly. Additionally, every car crossed the finish line. Maci usually buys too many cars at auction and will end up with one or two stranded at the end of the race, but with the jumps in Aloha Sands, all of her cars made it.

Downforce Wild Ride Rules Sheet
Wild Ride Rules Sheet

On the flip side, Savanna Stretch side also has simple rules, but instead of speeding up the game, this side felt like it slowed the game down. I actually wish we had played the sides in reverse order. Savanna Stretch may not have been any slower than the base game, but after playing with the jumps on Aloha Sands, it felt extra long.

Downforce Aloha Sands
Downforce Aloha Sands in play – Meeple spectators not included

One thing to be aware of with Savanna Stretch is that the spaces for the animals are oddly shaped. We had a couple of moments of confusion in placing our cars in them because we weren’t used to the shape of the spaces. This wasn’t a big deal, but it is something to keep an eye on.

Overall, I give the Wild Ride Expansion a 9/10. It isn’t necessary, but I really enjoyed it, and it’s a great way to keep playing Downforce with a little variety.

The Kid Review

I like the Down Force Wild Ride Expansion. Both sides are great.  I love the jumps on the first side – Aloha Sands. Double jumping or just jumping is really cool because it gets me really far. I like the other side (Savanna Stretch) because I like that when the animals get out of the way, it’s one space. It’s also challenging that you have to avoid the animals. I like the first side (Aloha Sands) better though.

Downforce Wild Ride Car taking a jump
Having fun with the car jumps in Downforce Wild Ride

In conclusion I will give this expansion 10/10.

Overall Impressions

As a family, we are fans of the Wild Ride Expansion for Downforce.

  • Overall Rating: 9/10
  • Setup: Easy
  • Rules: Very Easy
  • Does REQUIRE original Downforce game to play

Do you have the game Downforce? Will you be getting Wild Ride? Do you already have it? Leave us a comment, we’d love to hear your feedback!

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Downforce – Board Game Review

Downforce is a racing game for 2-6 players. The box recommends players 14+, but Maci has been playing this since she was 6 with no problems. Any person who can pull a card out of their hand and count as high as 6 has the skills needed to participate (although they might not win). There could be some more advanced strategies for older players, but don’t be intimidated by the recommended age! It generally takes 30-45 minutes to play a game.

Downforce game box and race cars
Downforce box and racers

Gameplay Overview

Downforce has three parts: an auction, racing, and betting. During the auction, players bid on the cars using the cards which have been dealt to them. Racing takes place in turn order. Each player chooses a card to play and moves the cars a certain number of spaces as listed on the card they chose. Betting takes place three times during the game. At the end of a turn where a car is the first to pass a yellow betting line, all players place a bet on the car they think will finish first. This bet can be the same or different for each yellow line on the track.

Once a player has all of the cars they won in auction cross the finish line, they stop playing cards to make the cars move. When the last player runs out of cars or all cars have crossed the finish line, game play is over and the scores are tallied. Players add together how much money they earned for each of their cars based on how the cars finished. They then add up any money won through betting. Finally, they subtract the amount they paid for the car(s) won in auction. The player with the highest final total is the winner.

Downforce racing game score pad
Downforce Score Pad

The Dad Review

You know a game is good when you start running out of score sheets. So, you laminate them before you run out. It’s a good tip as well to laminate your score sheets, especially when you play a game a lot, but this review is not about the laminator, it’s about racing and gambling with your family. 

Laminated Downforce score sheets
Laminated score sheets

Yep, you have to spend money to make money, but not too much. That leads to a cool part of this game. You spend money to bid for vehicles that you’ll race, but if you spend too much, you most likely won’t win at the end. At the end of the day, that money you invested in cars will be negative points, so if you don’t place well, you will not be making up that difference and will lose.

The other cool part is betting on the winner, which happens three times during the game. This is a way to make money, but not necessarily from your own cars. You can bet on other players’ cars too. This can bring up emotional peaks and valleys. 

Highs and Lows

It’s cool to see Maci in first place and smiling when I start moving her car to help her win, even though it helps me as well because I have bet on her car. It keeps her interested in the game and winning feels good, hence the smiling. On the flip side, I can also see the sadness, anger, and depression, the trifecta of bummer emotions on her face when I don’t move her car, and blow past her in mine. Though I feel bad, I also have this awesome feeling inside that I am going to win, and it doesn’t go away even when she starts to cry and uses her cards as tissues. Ultimately, it’s a race and those of you who are competitive know I made the right call to pass her and I should probably buy some extra tissues. I don’t want the cards to get boogery. 

So, if your family hates take that moments, that could be a small issue in this game because you will be moving other people’s cars and you could stick them in a poor spot or even get them stuck behind other cars, wasting that car’s movement points.

In the end, the moments of negative feelings are few and far between and this game is straight up fun. Every family we’ve played with has enjoyed it. So if you’re into racing games, like Camel Up, Flamme Rouge, The Tortoise and the Hare, or Formula D, I recommend this game.

Downforce layout
Downforce layout

As a family game, I give Downforce a 9/10.

The Mom Review

Downforce is a regular hit in our house. It plays quickly, so even if someone is feeling a little antsy, they are usually willing to play. We will also often play several games in a row. Maci likes being in control of a bunch of cars. So, Jake and I often only end up with one or two each. She tends to overbid, and doesn’t win because her auction total was so high. However, since she enjoys having so many cars, it doesn’t seem to bother her too much.

Kids really like that they get to move everyone’s cars on their turn. A single card can have anywhere from one car to all six listed on it. So when you play a card, you aren’t just moving your own cars on your turn, and you can block cars in. This is usually really fun for the person who is moving the cars and less fun for those who realize they just missed out on a lot of movement they could have had.

Some of the types of cards in Downforce
Some of the racing cards in Downforce.

I also like that there isn’t a lot of down time as people think seriously about their moves. It’s pretty easy for players to have an idea in mind or just choose a card that moves their own car or the car they have bet on quickly around the track. The lack of wait time really keeps the game moving and is great for those with a short attention span!

Learning the Rules

The rules are clear, fairly simple, and easy to teach. There are also some alternate ways to play listed at the back of the rulebook. If you are playing with an inexperienced or young gamer, the Beginner’s Game is a great place to start. If your gaming party has a lot of stamina, a World Tour game can be a lot of fun!

Like Jake mentioned, we were getting close to the end of the scoring pad, so we decided to laminate our score sheets. I use this laminator and these laminating pouches that I got on Amazon (affiliate links). You can write on the laminated sheets with either dry erase markers like Expo markers, or wet erase markers, like Vis-a-Vis. ( I prefer the wet erase because the laminating plastic cleans up better after using those).

Overall, I give Downforce a 10/10. I am always happy when someone suggests we play!

The Kid Review

I like Downforce. My first reason is I like racing games. I also like driving my car and it wins. Sometimes my car doesn’t cross the finish line. I’m fine with that though. Sometimes when I get cars I spend too much money on them at the auction, and that’s why I lose. But, it is fun even if I lose because I get to spend time with my family and it’s just a really great and fun game.

In conclusion, I will give this game 10/10.

Overall Impressions

Overall, our family really enjoys the game Downforce. It is a game that we have played with may of our friends, gamers, and non-gamers alike.

  • As a family, we rate this game 10/10.
  • Setup rating – easy
  • Understanding and teaching the rules – easy

If you already have Downforce, or try it out, you might enjoy these Downforce Expansions: Danger Circut and Wild Ride!

What is your favorite racing game?

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