Marathon Mayhem

Marathon Mayhem is a light race game from Zesty Lemon where the 2–5 players are engaged in a 42km marathon race. You're moving your runner meeple around the track that's divided into 42 steps, plus the start/finish - so you're actually moving 43 steps to reach the finish line. A few of the step spaces have a small 'Snakes & Ladders' effect, in that if you end your turn on them they advance your meeple by 1km or make you move back 1km. A couple of the spaces give you the bonus of extra energy tokens. Players all start the game with 8 energy tokens.

Tho' Marathon Mayhem has the look of a simple roll&move game, there are no dice. On your turn you either spend energy tokens to run or you rest (stay where you are and draw 2 energy tokens). The distance you move depends on how many energy tokens you spend: 1 token advances you 3km, 3 tokens advance you 6km, 6 tokens 9km and 10 tokens 13km. It's mildly reminiscent of David Parlett's classic Hare & Tortoise (Gibsons), which in 1973 was the first ever winner of the Spiel des Jahres award, tho' Hare & Tortoise and its later reimplementation as Around the World in 80 Days (iello) is a rather more pure mathematical puzzler.

In addition to the run or rest choice, Marathon Mayhem also uses cards. You start off with three cards and you pick up another card at the start of every turn; you have the option to play a card at the end of your turn (after you've taken your run or rest), tho' some cards labelled as 'reactions' can be played out of turn, including to protect you from another player's card play.

It's the cards that introduce the game's 'Mayhem' and player interaction. There are cards that give you energy tokens and cards that let you steal tokens or cards frm another player. There are cards that let you catch up with the runner in front of you and some that move other runners back. Some movement cards boost the distance you run and there are reaction cards that let you 'tag along' with the runner ahead of you, copying the distance they move.

Our plays of Marathon Madness at Board's Eye View have been mainly characterised by 'tortoise'-like short, efficient runs, boosted through effective card play. Players otherwise tend to hold onto cards, on the lookout for the optimal time to play them. As the runners advance around the board, so players increasingly use their cards to impede others or to catch up with those who have raced ahead. It makes for a light 'take that' but family-friendly race game that you can play in around 20 minutes. It's a game children can play but they need to be able to read and understand the text on the cards so we'd pitch the age range for the game a little higher than the 6+ that Zesty Lemon have on the box.

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