Magical Athlete is a dice-rolling, racing game.
Title: Magical Athlete
Year Published: 2025
Designer: Takashi Ishida, Richard Garfield
Publisher: CMYK
Players: 2-6
Game Time: ~30 mins
Set-up Time: ~5 minutes
Ages: 6+
Theme: Psychedelic, weird and wonderful.
Mechanisms: Roll & Move, Drafting & Racing
How to win: Score the most points after 4 races.
Game Description
A racing game of pure chaos! Roll a die and move your racer that many spaces, but all the racers have wacky, game-breaking abilities.
How to play Magical Athlete
A quick and concise how-to-play, including the changes for 2 players and the 3-player variant.
Main Mechanisms
You open draft your racers so that’s how you pick them. The race itself is roll and move with player powers.
USP
This is from the simple racing game that is made by the many, many different racers.
Theme
There is no real theme. But it is an interesting world.
Setup & Rulebook
Setup is simple. Shuffle the cards and lay them out. Let players dig through the pile of meeples trying to find the right ones for their cards.
The rulebook is good enough. It would be a tough ask for them to include every
Components & Artwork
Everything is OK. The meeples are nice and all in different, fun shapes.
The art is fun, giving Magic Roundabout vibes.
Ease of Teaching
It’s obviously very easy to teach. You just have to clarify some of the more complicated racers when they’re laid out.
You may have to remind people of their abilities when they trigger.
Similar Games
It’s often compared to a recent release, Hot Streak, which also has weird and wacky characters racing, but it’s more of a betting game.
Another simple racing game with wacky characters is Wacky Races.
Magical Athlete Review
Positives
The 36 racers provide a lot of variability.
The game is fun with a lot of wacky action.
It has a unique look.
Negatives
It’s random and won’t be for everyone.
Magical Athlete Round-Up
A fun game, well worth trying if you haven’t already.
Rating
I give it 6/10