Review: Heat – Pedal to the Metal

Introduction & Overview

The circuit fills with the roar of engines as cars shoot off the starting grid at full speed: The Grand Prix has begun! The wind hits your helmet with force just as you are about to approach the first corner. You accelerate to the max and almost spin out, but you grip the steering wheel and look for the apex to take the turn while still in first gear. You’ve done it! And since there is no prize for crossing the finish line with the car in good condition, you floor the accelerator! If you want to stay in the lead, you’ll have to push your car to the limit. Will the engine withstand the long straightaways or will it fail at the last moment because you pushed it too hard?

This is how Heat: Pedal to the Metal is presented, a design by Asger Harding Granerud and Daniel Skjold Pedersen (Iron Curtain, 13 Days: The Cuban Missile Crisis, or Deep Blue). It was first published in 2022 by Days of Wonder in an English version. The illustrations are by Vincent Dutrait, who already demonstrated his talent in games such as Lewis & Clark, Mundus Novus, or Museum.

It is published in Spanish by Asmodee Ibérica (although the game is completely language-independent, except for the rulebook). It allows for games of 1 to 6 players, with a suggested minimum age of 10 years and an approximate duration of between 30 and 60 minutes. The retail price is €64.95. For this review, a copy of the Spanish version from Asmodee Ibérica has been used, which the publisher has kindly provided to us as a review copy.

Important: if you already know the game and/or are only interested in my opinion about it, you can go directly to the Opinion section. The Content and Mechanics sections are especially intended for those who do not know the game and prefer to get a general idea of how it works.

Go to Personal Opinion

Components

Inside a two-piece cardboard box (lid and bottom), measuring 29.7×29.7×10.4 cm (a standard square box, similar to Ticket to Ride but slightly deeper), we find the following elements:

• 2 Double-sided Circuit Boards (cardboard)
• 6 Race Cars (1 of each color) (plastic)
• 6 Gear Shifters (1 of each color) (plastic)
• Legends Board (cardstock)
• Championship Board (cardstock)
• 6 Driver Boards (cardstock)
• 6 Weather Tiles (cardboard)
• 12 Track Condition Tokens (cardboard)
• 2 Press Tokens (cardboard)
• 330 Cards (56×87 mm.):
  • 72 Speed Cards
  • 18 Basic Upgrade Cards
  • 48 Heat Cards
  • 37 Stress Cards
  • 34 Basic Improvement Cards
  • 62 Advanced Improvement Cards
  • 35 Sponsorship Cards
  • 10 Legend Cards
  • 10 Event Cards
  • 4 Circuit Cards
• Championship Scorepad (paper)
• 2 Rulebooks

How to Play

Heat: Pedal to the Metal is a racing game in which each player controls a vehicle on a two-lane circuit with corners that mark a specific speed limit. Each round is structured into two phases. First, each player chooses which gear to advance in (they can shift up, stay in the same gear, or downshift, or move two gears by overheating the engine). Subsequently, depending on the gear, players simultaneously choose their cards. They can play as many cards as the gear value. These cards are part of a deck containing movement cards with values of 1, 2, 3, and 4, plus some additional special cards and stress cards. Once all players have chosen, they resolve their turns in position order (from first to last), revealing the cards and evaluating how many spaces they can advance in the turn. The engine temperature is modeled with an independent deck of cards from which cards are drawn each time the engine is overheated (cards that go into the player’s deck). If the deck runs out and the player has to discard a card of this type, the vehicle will spin out. When approaching curves, if a player crosses them at a speed higher than indicated, they must overheat the engine by as many cards as the difference between the limit and the speed. To the total movement, the player must add extra movement if they start the round in last position or finish their movement right behind or next to a car by utilizing slipstream, and they can also, previously, overheat the engine to play an additional card. Finally, if the player is in a low gear, they can cool down the engine by moving Heat cards from their hand to the heat deck. Finally, the player can discard cards from their hand (except Stress and Heat cards) and replenish until they have seven cards. The game ends when a player crosses the finish line after completing a certain number of laps of the circuit.

Key Concepts

Let’s start with the Circuit Boards. The game includes two boards with two circuits on each side. Each circuit consists of a path divided into spaces structured into two parallel rows. Each curve divides the circuit into sections (a section goes from one curve to another). In each section, one of the two lanes will be the innermost to the next curve and is highlighted by a white band, so the first vehicle to reach a row will be placed in that space. Each curve has a maximum speed value indicated on the board with a numerical value. Each row (pair of spaces) is associated with a value corresponding to the number of spaces remaining to reach the next curve. The finish line shows the spaces for placing the cars on the starting grid. At one end of the board, we have the circuit information (how many laps must be completed to finish the race) and a space to place the weather tile.

Each player will control a Vehicle that will move along the lanes described in the previous paragraph. It is important to indicate that there are no blockages between cars other than the fact that if a car reaches a certain row and both spaces in the row are occupied, it must end its movement in the first free space in previous rows, but if it had enough speed to overtake both cars, it will pass them.

Each player will have a basic deck of Speed Cards. These are distinguished from the others by, in addition to the representative color, showing a speedometer symbol at the top center. We have cards numbered from 1 to 4, with three copies for each value. To play in the basic mode, each player has three special cards that, if upgrade cards are used, are left in the box. When a player plans their turn, they will put several of these cards into play, so that the sum of their values will represent the advance of their vehicle. Each deck also contains special cards that will be used if upgrade cards are not used.

Several types of cards will be incorporated into this basic deck. On one hand, Stress Cards. These represent the pilot’s loss of concentration for a brief moment. They show a + symbol in the top corners that will force the player to reveal cards from their deck until a speed card appears. Furthermore, these cards cannot be discarded from the hand in the usual way, so they will remain in it until some effect allows them to be discarded or they are played.

On the other hand, we have Heat Cards, which represent the engine temperature. Initially, these cards form an independent deck from which cards must be discarded as the player overheats the engine. These discards go into the player’s deck, so these cards will appear in their hand, also not being able to be discarded or played. Only when they can enjoy cooling effects can they return cards from their hand to the heat deck. The player can overheat the engine on various occasions.

The third type are Upgrade Cards. In each race, players will perform a draft phase choosing three of these cards to add to their deck. These cards have an associated speed (or stress symbols) and diverse effects, although many of them force discarding cards from the deck without going through the hand or overheating the engine. Any symbol that shows an exclamation mark must be resolved obligatorily, while the rest of the symbols can be resolved by the player if they deem it convenient and circumstances allow.

Each player will have a Personal Board with three spaces for cards. The left one for the deck, the central one for the Heat card deck, and the right one for the discard pile. Additionally, on the right band, we have the gearbox with four levels numbered 1 to 4 with a series of associated symbols. Players will decide in each round which gear they race in, which will determine the number of cards they must play from their hand. It is important to indicate that a player cannot look at the cards in their discard pile (only the one at the top of the pile).

To mark the Gear in which the player is driving, a Gear Shifter is available. In the first phase of each round, the player decides the gear and moves this marker up or down one or two positions (they can also stay in the same gear as the previous round). Changing a gear up or down will have no cost, while changing two gears up or down will overheat the engine.

Finally, we have the Weather Tiles, which determine initial conditions regarding Stress cards and Heat cards. On the other hand, we have the Track Condition Tokens, which mark a specific condition to be applied in each section (one token will be placed per section). Some tokens show the weather symbol, so they will apply the effect indicated on the weather tile.

That is enough to get started.

Setup

1. Choose a circuit and place the board with the corresponding side in the center of the table.
2. Mix the weather tiles and place one of them in the designated space on the board.
3. Mix the track condition tokens and place one next to each curve. The rest are returned to the box.
4. Each player chooses a color and receives a car, a personal board, a gear shifter (which they place in the value 1 slot of their personal board), a speed card deck of their color, 3 stress cards (more or less than indicated on the weather tile), 6 Heat cards that they place in a deck in the central space of their personal board (more or less than indicated on the weather tile). The basic special cards are left on the table.
5. The starting order is chosen randomly, and the cars are placed in the corresponding spaces.
6. Shuffle the upgrade card deck and perform three draft rounds. In each one, as many cards are revealed as players plus three. In the first and third rounds, players choose in reverse order of starting position, while in the second they choose in starting order. Cards not chosen in a round are discarded.
7. Each player forms a deck with their speed cards, stress cards, and upgrade cards, shuffles it, and places it face down in the left space of their personal board.
8. Finally, each player draws seven cards from their deck to form their starting hand.

We are ready to begin!

Game Flow

A game of Heat: Pedal to the Metal takes place over an indeterminate number of rounds until the race is completed. Each round is structured in three phases.

Phase I: Adjust Gears

Simultaneously, each player decides whether to shift up, maintain, or downshift from the current gear (players start in first). Shifting up or down one gear is free, but shifting up or down two gears will require placing a Heat card from the heat deck into the discard pile.

The phase ends once all players have chosen which gear they are going to resolve the round in.

Phase II: Play Cards

Simultaneously and secretly, each player chooses the cards they are going to use in the current round. They must choose as many cards as the value of the gear they chose in the previous phase. These cards must be movement cards; that is, it is not allowed to play Heat cards. In the particular case that a player does not have enough movement cards to match the value of their gear, as an exception, they may play Heat cards until they cover the corresponding number of cards.

The phase ends once all players have chosen their cards and have them face down in their play area.

Phase III: Movement

This phase is resolved in order from the leading player to the trailing player. In case two cars are at the same distance, the one on the inside of the curve (white band) acts first. The active player must proceed through the following steps in order:

1. Reveal Cards. The player reveals all the cards they chose in the previous phase. If one or more of the revealed cards show the stress symbol, the player must draw cards from their deck until they find a speed card for each revealed stress symbol. Cards that are not speed cards are placed directly into the discard pile.
2. Evaluate Speed. Now the player calculates the number of spaces they can advance with their car and moves it to the corresponding space. If there is no other vehicle in that row, it will be placed in the space attached to the white band (inside of the curve). If both spaces in the target row are occupied, they must end their movement in the first free space before that row.
3. Adrenaline. If it is the last player to act (or the penultimate in a game with 5 or 6 vehicles), the player can advance an additional space. They can also cool down their engine by returning a Heat card from their hand to the heat deck.
4. Reaction. In this step, the player applies the effects visible on the special effect cards they have played, plus impulse and cooling effects, in whatever order they deem appropriate:
   • Cooling. If the player advances in first or second gear, they will have the right to cool the engine by 3 or 1 card respectively, returning them to the heat deck from their hand.
   • Impulse. If the player wishes, they can perform an impulse, overheating the engine (placing a Heat card from the heat deck to their discard pile). After this, they will reveal cards from their deck until they find a speed card and will advance the corresponding spaces. Cards that are not speed cards are placed in the discard pile. If the player has adrenaline, they can perform their adrenaline advance before or after applying the impulse.
5. Slipstream. If at this moment the player’s vehicle is exactly one space behind another vehicle or next to it, they can apply an additional advance of two spaces via slipstream. It is not mandatory to apply it. If the destination spaces are occupied, the player will stay in a free space in the previous row. Important: if the player is crossing the finish line on the last lap, they cannot apply slipstream (it also cannot be used to cross the finish line if it would remain uncrossed by not using it).
6. Check Curve. If the player has passed one or more curves (unless they are curves after crossing the finish line on the last lap of the circuit) during all the movement carried out in this phase, without taking into account extra movements via slipstream (that is, only the value of the cards played plus adrenaline if it was applied is taken into account):
   • If the vehicle’s speed is equal to or lower than the curve’s value, nothing will happen.
   • If the vehicle’s speed is higher than the curve’s value, the player must overheat the engine by as many cards as the difference between the vehicle’s speed and the curve limit. If the player does not have enough cards to discard, they will discard as many as they can, place their car in the first free space before the curve, and draw one or two Stress cards (if they were in first/second or third/fourth gear respectively) which are placed in their hand.
7. Discard. The player can, optionally, discard cards from their hand that do not have the do-not-discard symbol.
8. Replenish Hand. The player draws cards from their deck until they have seven cards again.

After this, the turn passes to the next player according to the current race ranking.

If at any time the player has to draw cards from their deck and there are not enough, they will shuffle the discard pile and re-form their deck. If this happens during any of the steps prior to the last one, the cards that have been played during the turn should not be shuffled.

Game End

The game ends when all players have crossed the finish line as many times as the number of laps indicated on the circuit. When a player crosses the finish line this number of times, they will be placed on the lowest available step on the podium and will no longer have turns for the remainder of the game. In case several players cross the finish line in the same round, the player who has reached a row further from the finish line will be placed on the podium first. In case of a tie, the one who reached that row first will be placed first.

The winner will, obviously, be the one who ends up in the top spot on the podium.

Variants

No Weather. Simply, the weather tiles and track condition tokens are not used, so their effects are not applied.

No Upgrade Cards. Each player has three basic advanced cards that they use to replace the upgraded cards.

Legends. If you want to play with more cars than there are players in the game, you can introduce as many bot cars as you wish. The legends board is placed, and the legend card deck is shuffled and placed in the corresponding space. These cards show an advance value and a position prior to the curve for each car. Every time it is one of these cars’ turn to advance, the next card in the deck will be revealed, which will apply to all bot cars in the current lap. Each car advances using the following algorithm:

• If the car can advance the number of spaces indicated inside its helmet without passing a curve, it simply advances that number of spaces.
• If the car cannot advance that number of spaces without passing a curve but has not yet crossed the legend line, it is automatically placed in the space prior to the indicated curve (or in an earlier space if the row was occupied).
• If the car cannot advance that number of spaces without passing the curve but has passed the legend line, then it will advance as many spaces as the curve value plus as many spaces as the pre-curve space value indicated on the card.

Legends never take advantage of slipstream nor enjoy adrenaline, although they do impact other players’ ability to enjoy it. If the legend card deck runs out, the discard pile is shuffled and the deck is re-formed.

Championship Mode. In this mode, players will compete in a series of races according to the championship card. For each championship, there is a race card that indicates the weather, whether the car can be modified, where the press is placed, and sponsorships, as well as a special event. The upgrade allows adding an upgrade card at the beginning of each race, so the car gets better as the championship progresses. Sponsorship cards are part of the players’ starting hand. The press allows obtaining new sponsorship cards that are single-use. The press provides sponsorship cards when crossing a curve by taking advantage of slipstream (regardless of speed) or exceeding the curve limit by 2 or more. Only one sponsorship card can be won per press token.

Personal Opinion

Racing games are always special. Games in which the end of the game is triggered when a player reaches a certain objective, usually completing a certain route in less time than the rest, which generates very characteristic dynamics. And within this genre, we have designs for all tastes, from children’s games to games that aim to be as faithful a simulation as possible of a certain type of sports competition.

The problem they usually face is finding the difficult balance between decision-making, fun, and, above all, dynamism. There are games that are very agile but where decision-making is not especially deep. Others that perhaps go overboard with depth and drag the game out too much, losing excitement. In fact, in all this time that I have been analyzing games, I have not found a design that felt completely satisfactory to me on all levels. And I have some very strong references that have come very close (I will comment on them later because they are very relevant).

Now it is the turn of Heat: Pedal to the Metal (a magnificently titled game as you will see below), which is an evolution of one of the racing games that gained the most acceptance among the gaming community, such as Flamme Rouge (here is my tocho-review), the work of one of the two authors of the game we are dealing with today (Asger Harding Granerud). Let’s see if this evolution reaches first place or runs out of gas, not without first thanking Asmodee Ibérica for providing the copy that makes this rambling article possible.

We are facing the most classic setting possible in a board game, that is, Formula 1 car racing in the dawn of this competition. Each player will control a pilot with the goal of being the first to cross the finish line after completing a series of laps on a circuit.

The fun lies in the fact that it uses the game idea proposed by Asger Harding Granerud in Flamme Rouge; that is, a deck of relatively simple cards with a numerical value that determine how many spaces the vehicle advances along a track consisting of rows of spaces that run in parallel and without any additional peculiarities. The player adds the values of their cards, advances their bolide the corresponding number of spaces, and And that’s it! However, unlike the game set in the beginnings of cycling, here the cards are not single-use, but go to a discard pile and, when the deck runs out, they will become part of it again.

This seemingly minor difference completely changes the dynamic of the game. While Flamme Rouge posed an endurance race in which you had to optimize each card by using it at the right time to benefit from slipstreams, blocks, climbs, and descents, trying to accumulate the least amount of fatigue cards possible.

In Heat: Pedal to the Metal, the approach is completely opposite, and the game’s idea is to push the machine to the max, trying to open a gap from the competitors, since the cards do not disappear and will be available again in the next cycle of the deck. Here those fatigue cards are replaced by another of the key elements of the game: Heat cards. These are initially found in a central deck from which players discard cards as they perform more or less intense maneuvers, such as abruptly shifting gears or taking a curve with more speed than recommended.

This deck superbly models the engine temperature, so that the more cards in the deck, the greater the margin for maneuvering when taking curves in a risky way without suffering consequences other than raising the engine temperature. When we have the deck at its limit or even exhausted, we will feel absolute pressure when making decisions each turn, since the slightest miscalculation will make us spin out.

It is surprising how, with such simple concepts, a relatively deep management is achieved that represents the driving of our vehicle. It is true that a priori it might even seem simplistic (as was the case with Flamme Rouge), since our racing car travels on lanes and it is as if it were some kind of Scalextric, where what we have to adjust is the speed at which we take each curve so as not to go off the track. But this is not as simple as it seems.

For starters, because another magnificent concept appears: the gearbox. At the beginning of each round, players decide the gear they are driving in, an idea very similar to the one applied in Powerboats (here is my tocho-review) with that of shifting up a gear by adding a die, downshifting by removing a die, or maintaining the gear without adding or removing. Here the gear represents the number of cards we will be able to play, so, the higher the gear, the more cards and, therefore, the greater the margin of maneuver to reach a high speed.

But these gears also determine the temperature at which the engine is maintained, so that if we drive in low gears, we can cool it down by returning Heat cards to the deck as long as they are in our hand. Which I haven’t mentioned, but Heat cards have no utility and will simply reduce our margin of maneuver (beyond not being able to push the engine even more).

But of course, each player has the same basic cards, so in each deck cycle, they have the same amount of advance spaces. And since the cards are not single-use as in Flamme Rouge (at least most of them, as we will see later), the games will remain relatively even. Where are the differences generated? Well, in the use of slipstreams and the way in which players face the curves.

Players chasing the leader will try to adjust their position to be able to enjoy additional advances by ending in spaces immediately before or right next to another car. And, far from being difficult to calculate, it is relatively simple to foresee where a car that acts before us might end up, as curves serve as small goals that force players to take certain precautions. Thus, if a player is relatively far from a curve, we are sure that they will hardly dare to take it because the speed that would require would have disastrous consequences, squandering all the Heat cards they have. That is why it is not difficult to do some small calculations to, depending on the gear they have set at the beginning of the round, intuit where they are going to finish their movement.

It might seem that if a player manages to open a sufficient lead thanks to chaining slipstreams and impulses at the right moments, they could be unreachable. But the game has the great virtue of allowing major comebacks, whether due to conservatism or the leader’s blunders. In most of my games, I was a curve ahead upon completing the first lap and ended up being overtaken, and players who were left behind managed to get on the podium. There might be players to whom this bothers, as it may seem that the game penalizes the one in the lead, but I think it is more a matter of the players in the lead taking their foot off the accelerator and the pursuers going all out.

I make a small digression to stand up and applaud now that I talk about calculations and such. Finally, a graphic design that facilitates calculations for players, with a numerical value associated with each space that indicates the number of advances remaining until the next curve. It is enough to do a simple subtraction to place the vehicle in the appropriate space. No more counting with your finger and having to restart the process several times because something distracted us. A typical problem in great racing games like Snow Tails (here is my tocho-review) or TurfMaster (here is my tocho-review).

Another concept that I love is that of stress cards. The designers have known how to add just enough luck so that it is exciting to play certain cards but the ball is always in the players’ court. Do you want to take a risk? Play a stress card and start revealing cards until a speed card appears. Of course, this is where, again, calculations and probabilities come into play, since we know exactly the number of speed cards left in the deck and their values. So when the deck is about to run out, it can be a great time to get rid of these cards from your hand by having the statistics on your side when waiting for a certain value. Although the possibility of it backfiring is always there.

Related to this is the topic of spinning out. And if a player tries to take a curve at a higher speed than marked, we may find that we do not have enough cards to discard, losing control of the vehicle and suffering a spin. The player will replace their vehicle before the curve, place it in first gear, and, very importantly, will gain one or two Stress cards in their hand depending on the gear they were driving in. When a driving error is committed, it is normal to lose one’s nerve momentarily, and that this is reflected by something as simple as drawing one or two cards and the implications they have seems to me to be genius.

Already with this, the game seems magnificent to me, but having the experience of Flamme Rouge with its expansions, it is logical that they wanted to take advantage of it to expand the gaming experience. So we have a series of modules that enhance it significantly. The first, and perhaps most important, are the upgrade cards. Very simply, asymmetry is introduced through special cards that replace three basic ones found in the initial deck. We are talking about a huge deck with very varied effects that players will distribute at the beginning of the race.

A draft that has more repercussions than one could imagine because, depending on the race conditions, it will be more interesting to have some options or others. And there are cards that allow us to advance at high speed but at the cost of overheating the engine and discarding many cards from our deck directly, others that allow us to take curves with a larger margin, or even cards that allow us to cool the engine even while driving in high gears.

Those circumstances I speak of are caused by the Weather, which is taken almost directly from Flamme Rouge and its Meteo expansion. We will have different types of weather that, in essence, will alter the number of Stress cards and Heat cards that a player initially has, while, on the other hand, track condition tokens will be assigned to each section (between curves), which will vary the race conditions and, with it, the approach of the players when taking the different curves. For example, that there are sections where taking an impulse is free and does not overheat the engine changes the way of playing radically compared to when the standard impulse rules apply in that section.

Another addition that I find absolutely extraordinary is the Legend Pilots; that is, bot pilots. I think it is impossible to have designed a simpler algorithm for managing non-player-controlled pilots. A simple card that, taking into account the vehicle’s position before acting, determines almost directly the space in which it is placed. And that card applies to all bots. This allows you to enjoy Heat: Pedal to the Metal with any number of players while keeping the experience practically intact. In fact, it can be played solo (although you know that’s not my thing).

I will take this opportunity to talk about scalability. Obviously, this game is best enjoyed with six real players, since that point of chaos that a player and their decision-making (erratic, reckless, conservative, etc.) brings cannot be replaced in any way, although, as I have already said, the bot pilot system is wonderful. With each real player that we do not have at the table, the game will be a slight bit less exciting. But very slight, so it is recommended for any number of players.

Finally, we have the championship system which is also inherited from Flamme Rouge and its Peloton expansion, with which the cycling game really reached popularity. Here we are offered a system of linked races with specific weather, special conditions, and the introduction of sponsor cards, which are single-use and can be obtained by performing spectacular maneuvers in key curves where the press is located.

As you can see, we have a very complete game that practically encompasses all the concepts that were introduced in Flamme Rouge but oriented towards Formula 1 racing. And it succeeds superbly, since I would dare to say that there is currently no racing game that manages to convey this tension and excitement in a moderate interval of time (games should last around an hour) and with mechanics that allow for tremendously interesting decision-making. It is true that it may not reach the level of depth of games like the already mentioned Snow Tails or TurfMaster, but it makes up for it with amazing dynamism, reaching that longed-for balance that I spoke about at the beginning of this section.

It has plenty of variability, and although we only have four circuits, the small adjustments thanks to the weather are enough for the way we approach the race to vary. If we add to this the upgrade cards that appear to choose from at the beginning of the game, then we have a game for a long time.

 

In addition, it is a game whose deployment is practically immediate, this being one of the main problems that Flamme Rouge had. Assembling the circuit by connecting the pieces of the different segments was a very heavy task that often caused the game to stay on the shelf out of pure laziness. Here it is choosing a circuit, placing the cars, and running.

Let’s talk about production. Here you can see the hand of Days of Wonder and we have a high-quality product, with cards of very good weight, linen texture (perhaps too rough, so much so that it is hard to even shuffle the cards) and an adequate weight (essential to sleeve because the cards have continuous transit as if it were a deck-building game). The bolide miniatures are very detailed, so much so that they can look like real toy cars (they lack rolling) and the cardboard elements are of good thickness. It is true that the player boards and other modules are made of cardstock, but they are a mere support and do not impact the game experience (although it would have been a bomb to have double-layered boards with a lane for the gear shifter). The rulebook is acceptably well-structured in general terms, but it is true that there are details that are somewhat disorganized and can generate some doubts (which disappear with a couple of thorough readings). A magnificent insert is included to keep the cards divided and the cars and levers fitted, although it gives rise to slight annoyance when we see spaces for a seventh and eighth bolide (they are also in the starting spaces before the finish line), so the expansion is already planned. As a consolation, at least the insert will be useful to us.

Visually we have the great Vincent Dutrait, with a tremendous job in all aspects. The cover is suggestive and tremendously attractive, the circuits have a high level of detail without losing functionality (again, stand up for the numbering topic), and the cards are a delight, beautiful in the basic ones and clean and functional in the upgrade cards. And the personal boards have small details that give a touch of personality. Barbaric!

Before finishing, simply return to the subject of the title which, as you have seen, could not have been better chosen. Heat for the theme of heat and overheating the engine, Pedal to the Metal for the basic idea of accelerating to the max and not looking back and trying to get first place on the podium. Magnificent.

And let’s wrap this up. Heat: Pedal to the Metal is, from my point of view, the best racing game I have played to date. It achieves a wonderful balance between dynamism and decision-making thanks to tremendously accessible mechanics but which put players in situations that will require calculations and projections of the rivals’ turns to try to squeeze the most out of the hand of cards, whose management is simple but powerful. In addition, the game scales wonderfully, something that practically no racing game can boast of, thanks to an effective bot pilot system that is more than effective and that requires practically no effort to manage. And, as if that were not enough, the game includes enough material to bring it to the table continuously and feel that the games have their own flavor thanks to the resulting configurations. The only bad thing I can find is that the game is prepared for two more pilots who, obviously, will arrive in the form of an expansion. An expansion that I am already waiting for because I need more. For all this, I give it a…