Whirly Derby – Marble madness

Whirly Derby is marble-ously enjoyable light family fun.

Big Potato Games continue to deliver super lightweight games that are perfect for a quick family game night. Having kids, one of whom is quite a bit younger than the other, means that finding board games that appeal to all can be a little challenging at times, but the likes of Don’t Fall For It and Cards vs Gravity are easy wins thanks to their easy mechanics and quick playtimes. I wasn’t surprised to find that Whirly Derby would also fit the bill, and if it weren’t for the slightly faffy set up, it would be a constant hit for us.

The concept of Whirly Derby is pretty simple. You each have a set of marbles of a single colour, you select a number of marbles to enter into a race and put them into a provided cardboard cup, then roll them into the circular tray. The marbles will spin around and drop down a hole in the middle, a bit like those charity boxes you still see in some supermarkets! The first colour out claims the first prize in the form of a trophy card for that player, then the second, and finally the third. Trophies are worth different amounts of points and the player with the most points at the end of eight races wins!

It sounds simple to the point of being purely luck based, but there’s a lot more to it than that. At the start of the game you have five marbles, and you secretly select how many you want to enter into each race. The thing is, after a race you don’t get your marbles back. Over the course of the eight races, you get to refresh your marbles twice, so you have a little element of strategy here. You might have a race in which the top prize is an eight point trophy, so you throw four of your marbles into the contest, only to come up short and not win that prize. You’ve lost those big points and four of your marbles, so there’s a considerable risk/reward element to consider. I really liked this as it introduced our youngest to the idea of strategy and planning ahead without it being genuinely complicated. 

To keep things fair and interesting, there are a couple of additional optional rules that act as catch up mechanics or offer greater depth in scoring. Firstly, you have the rule that whoever comes in last place in a given race can take their marble back rather than it being lost. It’s a nice little way to keep someone who is falling behind in the game. The second catch up mechanic is great fun though, thanks to the Thunderball. When this randomly appears at the start of a race, it’s given to the player with the fewest points who can then enter it into any race. The Thunderball is too big to fit through the hole though, and the idea is that it blocks any more marbles from finishing the race, with the player who used it being given additional trophy cards based on how many they blocked. Yes, it’s still a random element, but it adds a fun twist into a race. My kids went crazy when we threw that into the mix for a race.

The final twist on the base mechanics is how the trophies are scored. In the standard game, each trophy has a number of points in the corner and that’s it. Playing with more advanced rules adds specific rules for each trophy. For example, the doughnut trophy is only worth two points, but if you get a combination of doughnut, cheese, and jelly, they’re worth a combined total of thirty points, which is a huge swing. The lowly one-point cactus is a poor choice most of the time, but if you have the most cacti at the end of the game, you get a bonus fifteen points. This changes up how the race winner selects their prize, as suddenly the highest base point trophy may not be as valuable to them as another helmet trophy. I liked the additional bit of strategy this introduced, and it had me second guessing how many marbles each player would want to enter.

There are a couple of little issues though. The actual race track is a little bit of a faff to set up. It’s not difficult as such, but having the stand for it being made out of cardboard — there’s commendably no plastic in this game at all — means I was apprehensive to force parts in place lest I tore part of it. I’ve not had a disaster yet, but it’s been a worry each time I set up. The other minor gripe I have is with secretly choosing your marbles, as I think a little standup screen for each player to hide their paddock of marbles would have been a neat and useful addition. As it stands it’s just about trying to block people’s views with your hand/arm. A small complaint, but it is something that came to mind.

Ignoring that though, Whirly Derby is really fun and easy to play, and as a low-complexity and low-investment — both in terms of time and money — game. It’s great family weight fun, and watching your marbles hurtle towards the hole is very enjoyable for the kids whilst there’s a little strategy involved to keep the grown ups a little more engaged. If you’ve got kids that you want to get away from their screens a little more, Whirly Derby is worth giving a spin.

Whirly Derby is available now from Zatu Games.