Restoration Games has successfully kickstarted and unlocked all its funding stretch goals for its new, post-apocalyptic vehicle racing board game, Thunder Road: Vendetta. It was a close run thing, but Restoration crossed the line just before the Kickstarter closed on Monday, unlocking Thunder Road: Vendetta’s final $750,000 / £554,000 target with less than 24 hours to go. The firm says backers will have their copies in November, after which the game will come to brick-and-mortar stores.
Six months after it was initially announced, Thunder Road: Vendetta rolled up to Kickstarter on January 25 with an initial goal of $300,000 / £222,000, which it accelerated past within a day. Now the game’s Kickstarter has come to a close, and Restoration Games has successfully hit its final stretch goal, unlocking – fittingly – a finish line tile to decorate the end of each race.
Thunder Road: Vendetta is a redesign of the Milton Bradley game Thunder Road, which came out way back in 1986. Like its ancestor, Vendetta is a racing game with Mad Max-style car combat. Players are a bunch of wacky post-apocalyptic racers who’ll battle it out, shooting at, and crashing into one another, and generally causing a big ol’ mess of car bits. You know: engines, tyres, erm, other parts of a car that we all know about, us petrolheads.
Anyhow, it also features a gun-toting chopper (another nod to Max Max); obstacles to slow you down; and boosts to speed you back up again. Expansions include big rigs, bikes, and unique characters, such as the alarmingly named ‘Bumpo the Clown: The Bumpmeister’. One mechanic that sticks out is that vehicles are wiped out if they fall too far behind the pack.
Founded in 2016, Restoration Games is a board game designer based in the US. It’s made some games of its own – the duelling game series Unmatched springs to mind – but its main schtick is taking old, beloved board games and breathing fresh life into them. Fireball Island and Downforce are two examples of board games the company has restored, and Thunder Road is the latest.
The Retail release for Thunder Road: Vendetta will come after Kickstarter backers receive their copies in November 2022. You’ll be able to purchase the base game and its main expansions, but special versions such as the Maximum Chrome edition and Extra Ammo pack won’t be available in stores. Restoration Games says you might be able to snag a copy off its website, however.