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Raptor Race looks like a simple dinosaur race at first glance. Five raptors, one finish line, fastest one wins. But let’s face it, that’s not really what you’re doing here. You’re not trying to get your raptor across the line first. You’re trying to make sure the right three are in the right places when the race suddenly ends.
Everyone gets a hidden top 3 card at the start, and that secret pretty much drives everything you do. All players move the same raptors, all the time, and half the fun comes from realizing a few turns later that you’ve been helping someone else far more than yourself. The game ends the moment one raptor crosses the finish line, no warning, no cleanup lap. Only then do you find out who was actually playing the long game.
👥 2-5 players, ages 6+
⌛ Playing time: 20 minutes
📝 Designer: Inon Kohn
🎨 Artwork: Yaniv Shimoni
🏢 Publisher: FlexiQ Games (review copy provided)
Gameplay Overview
Setup is quick. The board goes in the middle, all five raptors start at the line, and everyone draws one top 3 card and keeps it hidden. That card shows which three colours you care about, and in which order they need to finish to score well.
Turns go clockwise, starting with the youngest player. On your turn, you roll the dice, four dice in the starter game and five in the advanced one. After each roll, you have to lock at least one die before deciding if you want to reroll the rest. You can push your luck, but not endlessly. Once all dice are locked, you resolve them.
Most dice show coloured footprints, which move the matching raptor forward one space per die. The red T-Rex symbol lets you move a raptor of your choice backward. In the jungle game, that only works if there’s actually space behind the raptor, which stops things from getting too wild. Still, pulling a raptor back at the wrong moment can really hurt someone’s plans, and everyone knows it.
Then there are the boosters. If a raptor lands on or passes a booster space, you have to move a different raptor forward. That can trigger another booster, and sometimes another one after that. These moments are where the board can suddenly flip, and where people usually sit up straight and start counting spaces again.
The desert side of the board is the simpler version. Raptors stay in their own lanes and just move forward or backward. It’s fast, clean, and easy to follow. Flip to the jungle side, and things slow down a bit. Trees and rocks block the way, and the extra arrows die forces diagonal moves. You can’t ignore it. If a raptor can’t move forward because something is in the way, it has to step sideways. If that’s blocked too, it doesn’t move at all. Turns here feel more like small puzzles, and mistakes are easier to spot once everything settles.
The game ends immediately when the first raptor crosses the finish line, even if you still had dice you wanted to use. Scoring is based on where your three chosen raptors ended up, with each one needing to hit a certain minimum position to score. There’s also a small bonus if all three appear in the overall top three, no matter the order.
Artwork, Components, and Visual Design
Raptor Race is easy on the eyes without trying too hard. The desert board uses warm colours and stays fairly open, while the jungle side is greener, busier, and clearly more cramped. Even so, the important spaces are easy to read, and you’re rarely confused about where a raptor can or can’t go.
The raptors themselves are small plastic figures, all in the same running pose, with coloured stripes to tell them apart. It’s simple, and it works. The colours match the dice and cards, so you don’t spend time double-checking symbols. The dice are chunky and readable, which helps, especially when multiple boosts start chaining.
The top 3 cards are small and clear. Nothing fancy, just enough information to remind you what you’re secretly hoping for. Overall, the components do their job without drawing attention to themselves, which feels right for this kind of game.
Our Experience
One of the first things we noticed is how easy it is to teach. The idea that everyone moves all the raptors, but scores differently, clicks quickly. Even players who don’t play many games were comfortable after a round or two.
The dice system does a good job of creating tension without dragging turns out. You always feel like you’re choosing between safety and greed. Because all movement is shared, every decision has consequences, even when you’re just trying to help yourself a little.
What stood out most was how unstable the race can feel. Boosters and backward movement mean that positions don’t lock in until the very end. That keeps things exciting, honestly, but it also means careful planning doesn’t always get rewarded. Timing and reading the table mattered more than setting up something clever five turns in advance.
The board choice really changed the feel. The desert side moved quickly and felt lighter. The jungle side asked more from us. Turns took longer, and there were more “oh wait” moments when a raptor had to slide sideways instead of going where we expected. It was more interesting, but also less forgiving.
Player count made a big difference. With two players, it became a quieter mind game, trying to guess what the other person wanted and when they might end the race. With four or five, things got messier. More disruption, more accidental help, and more moments where someone who couldn’t win anymore still had a big say in who did. Sometimes that was funny. Sometimes it was frustrating.
The game stayed easy to follow, though, even when a lot happened in one turn. And it worked well with kids, who mostly cared about the race itself but still influenced the outcome more than they realized.
Our Thoughts
To be fair, the best thing Raptor Race does is mess with what a “race” usually means. You’re not building toward a clear goal from the start. You’re reacting, adjusting, and sometimes deciding to end the game because things look good enough right now.
That also comes with a downside. The same tools that keep the game lively can make the ending feel abrupt or decided by one last move. If your group really dislikes kingmaking or wants a strong sense of control, this might not land well. The game doesn’t protect you from sudden reversals, and it doesn’t try to.
If, on the other hand, you’re okay with shared control, a bit of chaos, and the idea that the final turn can undo a lot of careful thinking, there’s something enjoyable here. Raptor Race works best when everyone leans into the uncertainty and accepts that, sometimes, you’re just betting on dinosaurs and hoping for the best.
📝 We received a copy of the game from FlexiQ Games.
