Cost: $8 From: ITOS Enterprises Players: 2+ Playing Time: 10-30 minutes Type of game: Card Complexity: 2 Skill level: 7 Reviewed by: Kris Gould, Issue 3.2, Spring 1995
Educational games can be pretty boring. In fact, most of them are so caught up in being educational that they are downright unplayable. But I bought Mad Dash anyway, because it was new and inexpensive, and maybe it would end up being fun (after all, Take Off is fun, especially if you play with some nasty and vengeful people who are willing to fly back out of Hawaii just to knock another plane back to start!). It turned out that I made a good move.
The box is nothing much to look at; just a small, dark blue box, big enough to hold two decks of cards, with "mad dash!" written on it in red, and a white outline of the United States. Inside it you get four colorful maps of the United States, one page of rules (for two different games), a three minute timer, and a deck of fifty cards; one for each state. The state cards have the state name and a number of points printed on them, from 1 to 8, except for Alaska and Hawaii, which are wild cards and worth no points. The maps show the states, the largest and capital cities for each state, and major rivers, lakes, and national parks. It also contains listings of the states in order of size and population, along with some trivia facts that are used in the second game, "State Secrets".
Play is pretty straightforward. Each player is dealt half of the deck (it is basically a two player game), which they spread out on the table in front of them, with a map close by for easy reference. The three minute timer is turned over, and they must form the highest-scoring path they can before the time runs out. The paths are formed out of the cards, with two states played next to each other only if they actually are adjacent, so unless you are a whiz at U.S. geography, you need the map close by for reference. The two wild cards (Alaska and Hawaii) may be used as any state, but they can not substitute for a card already in your path, and they are worth no points. When time is up, you score the points for every state card in your path, if it is a legal path. But if your path has any errors you score nothing! The number of points for each state is inversely proportional to the number of states touching it. So Missouri, which is adjacent to eight other states (!), scores 1 point, while Maine, which you can not reach if you don't also have New Hampshire (or a spare wild card), is worth eight points. You also get a twenty point bonus for going coast to coast— touching both the Atlantic and the Pacific (the Gulf of Mexico doesn't count). You play either a set number of rounds, or up to a specific score, and the player with the highest score wins.
There is plenty of tension as you search for the right cards to use before time runs out. All the games I have played have been a frenzied rush to get the twenty point coast-to-coast bonus, with extra points for adding more states only being considered if there was time after that, or once a player realized that going coast to coast was impossible with the cards he had. I would like to try it once without the coast-to-coast bonus, just to see how the strategies would change. Three minutes seems like just enough time to get a decent path made if you are very quick, but never long enough so that you can just twiddle your thumbs as the last grains of sand fall. There is always a higher scoring path you could have made if you had ten minutes to think about it.
The game is fast and nerve-wracking, and a great challenge for people who don't mind games that put them under time pressure. The main problem is that the split of the cards can be downright unfair, with the luck of the deal making too much of an impact on the score. If you don't have Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, or New Mexico, then you have to use your precious Alaska card as one of those states if you want to have any chance of going coast to coast. And if a similar thing happens further along, and you don't have Hawaii, then you're sunk. This problem can be partially solved by making sure you play enough rounds to even out the spread of good and bad hands. But if you want to make it totally fair, the only way I can think of doing it is playing duplicate-style. Have each player write down their twenty five cards after each hand, play three rounds, then sort through (or have a willing third party sort through) and play the same three rounds over with the other player's hands. The player with the highest score for all six rounds is the winner.
My best strategy was to start on the west coast (it is easy to see whether you have any of the three west coast states) and head eastward. After playing each state, I look to see what states border it, and then look through my spread-out cards to see if I have any of them. A friend of mine plays by sorting all of his cards by location before starting any path, but this has occasionally placed him in the situation of just starting his path when the time runs out. At any rate, if you find that you can't go coast to coast, you must quickly try to find your highest valued cards and see if you can get them into a path. It's not easy. And you have to keep in mind that at the four corners (Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico) all four states are considered to touch each other.
The rules say that you can play a three-player game by taking out two cards and only allowing two minutes. This would make coast to coast even harder to achieve. And for four or more, use two or more decks (NOT shuffled together). There is also a master version, where you aren't allowed to look at the maps while creating your path. (I shudder at the thought!)
The other game included is called "State Secrets", and is played with the same equipment. It seems to be an educational combination of War and Trivial Pursuit. Each player plays one of their state cards face down after someone calls out "Population" or "Size". The cards are turned over and the state with the biggest population (or size) takes the trick. But you don't just get to take your trick. Another player can challenge by asking you to name the capital or biggest city of any state, or else ask you one of the other trivia questions printed on the map. If you get it wrong, you lose the trick. If you are right, you get it and your challenger has to discard one of his tricks. I haven't tried it yet, but this game seems a lot less interesting than "Mad Dash".
I find Mad Dash quick and intense, and with the maps there for reference, you don't have to be a geography whiz to play well. My group has also come up with an alternate way to play with three or more, although it's really a different game. The cards are dealt out, and one of the two extra cards is turned face up. Starting at that state, the players all together must create a path, each playing in turn. If you don't have a playable card, you must play a card face down as a wild card, but you may not call it a state that has been played face up. If you really are stuck, you may start the path again from any state. After all cards are played, each player gets the score of all the cards he played face-up. This makes a decent multi-player game, but I still prefer the original two player Mad Dash. It's quick and simple and, like it or not, you will come away from it with a little better knowledge of the layout of the United States. I'm eager to see how long it will take them to create other versions of this game. The most logical next step, I think, would be to create one for Europe. (Iceland could be a wild card.) Keep this up and people may even begin to enjoy learning geography!