Dungeon Rush

Today's review is of the 2016* release, Dungeon Rush.  For 3-5 players, it takes 12 minutes.

Overview
In Dungeon Rush, players sends two heroes apiece into a perilous chamber, where they'll battle monsters of varying strengths.  Monsters, if defeated, grant heroes extra abilities (necessary to face other monsters and the final bosses) and occasionally loot.  The player with the most loot at the end wins!

To start, all ten heroes are placed in the center of the table.  In draft order, each player chooses one; in reverse order, each player chooses a second.  Each player then places the two heroes side-by-side in front of themselves.  Each hero has one or more abilities in melee, ranged, magic, or stealth attacks, as denoted by symbols on all four edges of the card.  Two final bosses (a dungeon lord and dragon) are chosen and placed to the side.  Three decks, labeled I-III, are shuffled separately.

the hero cards, monster decks, and final bosses; image from here

The game is played over nine rounds.  In a round, each player is dealt two monster cards and reveals them to all, placing them in the center of the table simultaneously.  Then- and this is the crux of the game- each player, at the same time and as quickly as possible, claims two monsters for their heroes to fight by placing their right and left hands on one apiece.  The monster chosen with their right hand must fight the hero on the player's right; the monster chosen with the left hand must fight the hero on the player's left.  Each monster has a series of symbols on it, which a hero must have to conquer it.  If they do, they gain a symbol at the bottom of the monster card, and place that card under their hero with the symbol oriented appropriately.  Thus, as play progresses, their heroes gain abilities.  Deck I is used for rounds 1-3; Deck II for 4-6, Deck III for 7-9.  Then the final bosses are confronted- and all players can attack them (each gaining loot if victorious).  The player with the most loot wins!

monster examples, from here.  Beating the goblin shaman requires one ranged and one magic ability; success gives the hero one magic ability (the symbol at card bottom) and 3 loot

Review
The game has some interesting ideas, but I really didn't like the "think fast" component.  The obvious goal is to pick the monsters your heroes can overtake (and, ideally, give your heroes further abilities for later fights), but you don't have time to think, because your opponents might claim the ones you need first.  The right hand/left hand is interesting but also stressful, meaning you have to keep track of stats for both heroes, the choose quickly for both, and use the correct hands to do so.  This isn't intended to be a long, deep game, but other fast dungeon crawls are more fun and less stressful (like this one).

Rating: C

*it was released in Europe in 2016; an American release is scheduled for this year