About The Rat Race, from BoardGameGeek:
Welcome to Responsible Advancement of Transgenic Science - RATS
Engineering rats is our game.
Competing for cheese is theirs.
Six million dollars later, our rats are better, stronger, faster.
They are no longer challenged by mazes.
Instead, we have designed special cars that have bumpers to keep them safe, a mouse ball for them to run in for power and control, and a rubber pellet shooter to make each other lose control. We put them all on an arena and see who gets out with the cheese.
In The Rat Race, players control the rat driven cars to try to get the cheese and escape the area. They shoot and ram their opponents to force them to drop the cheese and pick up powerful power ups along the way! A platform racing and bumper car board game! The objective is to drive to the center of the arena, pick up the cheese, and escape with it!
The game comes with six different cars, each with their own limits of Speed, Steering, Power Ups, and Shots. Cubes are used to track the how many of each a car has remaining. Each car also has its own special ability. There are eight different drivers, each with their own special ability as well.
On your turn, you gain an extra Steering cube, and may choose to slow down or speed up by adding or removing an existing Speed cube. You can used any or all of your Steering, Power Up, and Shot cubes during your turn.
You must use all of your Speed every turn, which is tracked by sliding the cubes down into the Used position. Speed cubes stay on your car from turn to turn and are moved back up into the available position at the beginning of your turn.
To turn your car one "click" left or right requires you to return a Steering cube to the pool. You must roll to see if you maintained control during your turn. If you fail, you drift the rest of your movement. Steering is your most important commodity!
When you shoot at another car, you return a Shot cube to the pool and roll to see if you hit. Each car has a limited number of Shots for the game, so they must manage them carefully as they do not come back.
What's a platform racing style game without Power Ups? For each Power Up cube a car has, they have a matching Power Up card. These cards give additional cubes, bonuses on die rolls, and can even change the positions of walls in the game to make an easier escape route, or block an opponent from escaping. When a Power Up is used, its cube is dropped back onto the board so it can be picked up again!
Let's not forget the cheese. When you pick it up, you must then escape with it. Whenever you are shot, rammed, or run into a wall or another car you drop it. It then bounces away randomly waiting for another rat to pick it up and try to escape!
