Camel Up (Second Edition) Review – High Stakes, Higher Stacks, and Total Chaos

Camel Up (Second Edition) welcomes you back to the great camel derby. You gamble plastic coins betting on five coloured camels competing to be the fastest land animals in the desert.

This hilarious game of surprise and unfortunate events sees players taking turns betting on camels, adding speed boosts to the track, or moving a camel forward.

Although, no one gets to choose which camel moves. That honour goes to the gigantic plastic pyramid that randomly drops a coloured die on command. The colour of this die indicates which camel moves, while the number shows how many spaces.

Things get a little weird when a camel moves and lands in another camel’s space. Instead of racing neck and neck, the second camel mounts the first camel (avert your eyes children) and they become a camel stack.

Now whenever the bottom camel moves, it takes all camels on top with it. Don’t ask me how this is physically possible, it just is.

Meanwhile, there are the black and white crazy camels who’ve sipped too much cactus juice, as they start at the finish line and head towards the start line. Any camel unlucky enough to land on these guys has a chance to be camel-napped backwards towards the starting blocks.

This camel-backing mechanic is at the centre of Camel Up, as while you’d think the odds of it happening are low – it happens all the time. Making a bizarre but thrilling race, where the rare becomes run of the mill, and the extraordinary, ordinary.

You never know how the race will end until a camel crosses the finish line. Making bets on the race, or even one leg of the race a compelling activity.

Off to the races

As mentioned, you’ll be making bets and playing supporter/saboteur to the camels on the track. There are two types of bets you can make. You can bet big by betting on which camel is going to win or lose. Or you can bet small betting on the camel who’s going to be leading at the end of the current leg of the race.

Either way, you’ll want to be betting sooner rather than later, as Camel Up rewards you for making these bets as early as possible. A leg bet, for example, awards the first person to pick the right Camel: 5 coins, the next 3, then 2 and so on.

The worst feeling in the world is when you, without making a bet, use the pyramid to move a camel and then that makes the leader of the current leg a foregone conclusion. As you sadly watch everyone around the table race to pick up betting tickets for the winning camel. Leaving an empty spot, where that camel’s tickets used to be.

Therefore, in Camel Up you need to take risks and chances even when you’re not sure of the outcome. As such it replicates the feeling of live betting, despite being a turn-based game. So much so, that by the end of the game, you’ll find yourself hooting and hollering for your favourite camel as though it’s a sporting event.

Beyond the betting, an alternative way to gain money is by placing your supporter tile. Any camel that lands on this tile, will either get a move one space forwards or backwards. All the while giving you a coin in the process.

You know, just in case this race needed more chaos.

Photo finish!

Along with the new artwork, plastic pyramid, and weighted plastic camels, Camel Up (Second Edition) introduces a new partnership mechanic. But by the time I wrote this review, I never got to play with it given you need at least 6 players.

Additionally, this 2nd edition also added the fantastic crazy camels. Who while not always effective, provide an ever-present threat, and add a lot of uncertainty during the race.

And for a game that revels in the improbable, they are a perfect addition to the game.

Overall, Camel Up (Second Edition) is one of the best gateway/family games to come out in recent history. It’s a cracker to play and only takes 20-30 minutes for the camels to pass the finish flag. And because of its somewhat deterministic nature, it allows you to engage and make sound judgements throughout. If you haven’t played it already, what are you waiting for?