Going for Speed – A Magical Athlete: Second Wind Review

Takashi Ishida’s 2003 edition of Magical Athlete is so far in the rearview mirror that it’s become a fleck of indistinguishable color on the horizon. CMYK’s vision for this game has completely outdone the chintzy but lovable Z-Man publication, and Second Wind cements that newfound legacy. When someone mentions Puerto Rico or Concordia, my mind doesn’t go to the garish modern incarnations. But early aughts Magical Athlete? A ghost, man. This new baller is it.

In this way, Second Wind feels entirely natural. It’s a surprise in some regards, with creative new boards and a lineup of fresh characters, but everything fits. Everything is comfortably zany.

In some ways, there’s not a lot to say here. If you’ve followed my writing for a spell, you may know that I don’t usually have that problem

How about starting with the basics. Second Wind is a standalone box that includes 36 unique racers and two new tracks. Most will want to take all of this goodness and toss it into a blender with last year’s fantastic offering. What comes out is an endless slurry of chaos that will batter your dopamine receptors.

Let’s highlight some characters.

There are plenty that meld well with the overall roster. Overtaker gets +1 to their move for each racer ahead of them. If Diva is in last place she swaps with the lead, otherwise she swaps with the caboose. Critic can make those ahead of them reroll their move. These are solid characters that fit in with the greater cast and would have been perfectly comfortable in the base game.

My favorite abilities are the ones that manipulate race results and points. This type of power was almost nonexistent in the original Z-Man edition of the game, with Prophet being the sole competitor. While the 2025 release featured some of this, Second Wind leans a little more into such delightful nonsense. Gloth, for instance, has -1 to its main move but is awarded three points if they’re not past the second corner at race end. Spoilsport wins outright if all other races are five or more spaces ahead. Speed Demon is a special kind of absurd. They get +1 to their move for each point the player has. The catch is that they’re eliminated if they’re 4+ spaces in the lead at the start of their turn.

Then there’s the really bizarre. Those that fit into the same classification as M.O.U.T.H., the character that chomps victims along the way. Second Wind features a bitten fool who transforms into a W.E.R.E.M.O.U.T.H. midrace. Then there’s the Hog Knight who rides a green pig across the track, but careful, for the hog can be stolen. Yes, pieces slot into the beast of burden and physically ride atop it. Mush is a baddie. This weirdo draws racer cards and accumulates powers whenever they roll a one or two. Hell yeah.

As new over-the-top characters pop out, there’s an inclination to view this expandalone as migrating slightly towards complexity and weirdness. In respect to the former, it does seem as though there is just a little more text and conditional language pressed into these cards. No case exceeds two sentences, but the density appears higher. I also had to go to the rules more often in order to find clarity on abilities. This was not egregious and the vast majority are easily understood, it’s just that a couple of character collisions resulted in oddball situations and one-off confusion. It wouldn’t really be a game of Magical Athlete without a goofy car crash of interaction to untangle.

None of this is particularly meaningful commentary. I’m lurching in the corner trying to pick apart something which strongly aligns within the boundaries of its sibling. Everything here feels carefully designed, and I wouldn’t steer someone away from Second Wind if they were unfamiliar with the previous offering.

The area where this release finds distinction is in track selection. I’m a big fan of the Wild Wilds board from last year’s set. This is the one that has special spaces that award points, trip, and move racers back and forth. It’s an area where the 2025 edition departed from the original 2003 release, and the helter-skelter strongly aligned with the game’s philosophy.

I enjoyed the Mild Mile less. It was a necessity I imagine, to include a neutral track that just allowed the player powers to receive the spotlight. But there is always a level of excitement and heightened anticipation that arises when the board is flipped and the Wilds emerge.

Second Wind ain’t mild. It introduces two new unique tracks, each with its own kind of quirkiness. Whirly World is a banger, featuring warp spaces that move you forward and backward. It’s kind of like gonzo Chutes and Ladders. Twisty Twirl is more mysterious. It’s a bog-standard track with no special spaces or effects, except for one twist. Literally. When the first racer crosses the half-way mark a twist is drawn. This is an event card that alters the rules of the race. I’ve seen some wild stuff, like having the first and second place finishers perform a shortened one-v-one sprint to claim points for both positions. One twist reverses the track entirely, having racers about face and book it for the start line. Another turned the final two spaces before the finish into backward slopes, kicking you rearward. Drawing these twists with their monotone Monopoly Chance Card aesthetic is such a delight. Everyone grabs ahold of their chairs with clenched cheeks and braces for pain jubilation.

Of course, what works exceedingly well is in how the nuances of these boards interact with various racers. Nepo Baby, who I assume is Big Baby’s little bro, begins at the first corner of the track. Instant twist draw. Or how about the red Hotel bastard that steals points from people who land on him. Lot more opportunity for that on the Whirly circuit where players are beaming back and forth. This light level of strategic analysis adds a nice subtle layer of texture to play. It was there in the previous CMYK release, but with two whack tracks, this quality is emphasized farther.

While some strait-laced individuals may prefer to keep Second Wind separate from the self-titled cut, the majority of us freaks are going to want to mash it all together. This new release is more than amenable to that mindset.

Beyond the cohesion of characters and their universally applicable effects, there is a real boon to the meld. You can now run the standard session of four races on four distinct tracks. Standard Magical Athlete play has you racing across each board twice, simply flipping it over and alternating. Using all four is much more interesting, not just for variety’s sake, but in how it influences which characters you draft and how you deploy them. Knuckleheads may scoff at this, but this is legitimately the case. The relative value of each racer shifts with the board dynamic, and the game benefits from these fluctuations.

The primary downside to this hedonism is that locating character pieces becomes more difficult. It’s not onerous, yet. Smart money is on more Magical Athlete. I’m not privy to insider knowledge, but I imagine we see additional sets. This one will certainly be successful due to the inherent variety, low price point, and rad content. So, what does this look like in a few years? Are we going to have a couple hundred wooden meeples to sort through in order to play a 45-minute game? That could be a problem. I would have preferred an icon on the character cards to help identify which box they came from. I don’t see a great solution, perhaps bagging them by color or size. Luckily, no one has to solve it now.

I declared the 2025 release as the perfect stewardship of the original work. This new title is riding shotgun. In all other ways than that worry of tomorrow, Second Wind is a perfect expansion. It’s low maintenance as it’s cheap and you don’t need the previous set, yet it’s enormously potent as a true extension. All of its content stands firmly alone, just as it strongly enhances the greater corpus of Magical Athlete.

I think it’s easy to view this set less excitedly than CMYK’s inaugural offering, and that’s simply because the bar has been set high and we’ve recovered from the glamor. This feels less novel. We’re accustomed to the exceptional artwork and graphic design. We are primed for the enchantment and are apt to take it for granted.

Let’s not do that. Let’s recognize Second Wind for the victory that it is.

This expansion was designed by Christian Kudahl and Richard Garfield. No Takashi Ishida. And yet, his absence is not at all evident. This release is spot on. The immense spirit is as present as ever. Everything feels right. This is Magical Athlete as it was, as it is, and as it shall be.

 

A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for review.

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