Apples, corn and berries will get Quacks the donkey and his friends’ motors running. These are the stars of the wild race game “Quacks & Co.”, the child-friendly reimplementation of “The Quacks of Quedlinburg”, which won the Kennerspiel des Jahres award in 2018. Like its big brother, the children’s version sees players drawing tokens out of a bag – here they show healthy donkey fuel like fruit and vegetables and can be used for special effects. Players can regularly buy new tokens. But a bit of bad luck on the racetrack doesn’t have to cause problems. Luck when drawing tokens is just one secret of success, another is having a good strategy when buying and filling your bag with more tokens. This is a tactical race that deconstructs the complex game mechanics perfectly for its target audience.

Children are rarely so happy to see fruit and vegetables. It’s fantastic how Wolfgang Warsch has compressed a complex game into a more child-friendly race, that will captivate younger players thanks to its accessibility and understandable story. With its multiple variants, the game develops at the same pace as the players’ abilities. When you question your luck and quibble over the possibilities, that’s where “Quacks & Co.” shows its quality.