Super Slow Sloths — Don’t win the race.

When it comes to sloths, there is one thing that comes to mind — being slow. Sloths are known for being slow, lazy animals, which isn’t really the best for winning things like races. Running? Being fast? Not taking naps? It’s just not their style. In Super Slow Sloths, you’ll be hoping to lose a race against rival sloths.

You’d think that getting to the finish line first would make you the winner, but not in this game. Super Slow Sloths has several sloths for each player to choose from; robot sloth, goth sloth, and Slothello, to name a few. Then, you’ll need to set up the actual race track.

The track comes with a handful of pieces — most importantly the start and finish which go at either end. There is also two river tiles which can cause you to swap places between the two mid-game, a tree log that you cannot go back over unless you spin the correct spinner or have a special card, and an insomnia tile that forces you to have another turn if you land on it. A blue card marks the water hole spot on the track, which forces players back to that space once another player reaches the finish, or if specific cards are played.

Making the track itself is a very fun, if necessary, aspect of the game. You can make the track into a circle, a wavy shape, or however else you want to connect these tiles. They are double sided meaning you can make a big curve or do whatever you’d like. Placing the tiles at the start gives the game a lot of variety in the layouts, which adds some replayability beyond the cards and spinner.

The cards which you can play come in three types; speed, sabotage and snooze. When it’s your turn, you will spin the spinner and pick a card from a pile based on the spinner result. Speed cards primarily make you move forward, snooze cards mostly leave you in the same space or move you back spaces and — the most fun — sabotage cards introduce challenges into the game.

When it comes to gameplay, it’s mainly spinning the spinner and seeing what card you get. When you draw a card, you’ll read it aloud and then (mostly) action them immediately. The sabotage cards are really, really fun. At one point, Dann and my brother were both trying to do their best baby sloth impression, which left Dann upside down on a chair, sucking his thumb. Other actions had players competing in thumb wars, singing their favourite pop songs and trying to make others laugh or yawn. It’s such a fun time.

Actually moving forward in the race is a challenge, as most of the cards do keep pulling players back or keeping them in place. Losing challenges can move you forward, but you often have the chance to go back. The board can, of course, be made with fewer tiles if you want a faster game, but going through these various cards is a fun task in itself.

When it comes to winning the race (and losing the game) you’ll still have something to do. Many of the challenges will still include your character as a judge, and if you have enough players, you can continue playing by picking up and orchestrating a random sabotage or using your character’s sabotage, which is personal to each character. 

Super Slow Sloths is an overall fun and well-made game. I love the theme and the idea of trying to lose a race, just to win a game. The sabotage cards come in such a large variety that it makes for a very random and very fun game. Snooze cards and speed cards are written in a very humorous manner, so they do not bore either! 

You can pick up a copy of Super Slow Sloths on Amazon.