Whirly Derby is a set collection, racing game.

Title: Whirly Derby

Year Published: 2025

Designer: Tedman Getschman

Publisher: Big Potato Games

Players: 2-6

Game Time: ~30 minutes

Set-up Time: ~1 minute

Ages: 8+

Theme: None!

Mechanisms: Racing, Set Collection

How to win: Score the most points by collecting trophy cards over 8 races.

Game Description

As the proud owner of a team of five racing marbles, you must try to get as many top-three finishes as you can. The higher you finish, the more points you get to bank. If you’re stuck in last place, unleash the Thunderball racer to power you back up the leaderboard. The player with the most points after eight races is crowned Whirly Derby Champion of Champions.

How to play Whirly Derby

Learn how to play Whirly Derby in a quick and concise way!

Main Mechanisms

Well, you race to collect cards. Most of the trophy cards need sets to score, so it’s just racing and set collection.

USP

The marble raceway that you actually race on is the USP.

Theme

Nope!

Setup & Rulebook

Setup is OK. You have to fit the cardboard rim into the meta raceway, and it’s a bit tricky.

The rest of the game is fine.

The rulebook is OK… It comes in two parts, and it really doesn’t need to have the advanced rules seperate from the basic rules.

Components & Artwork

The components are great. The raceway works well, and the cardboard rim has magnets to hold the tray in place, which is a nice touch.

The marbles could have been better.

There isn’t much art, just on the cards, but it is fun and cute.

Ease of Teaching

Obviously, this is very easy to teach. You can even teach the trophy cards and Thunderball rules as required.

Similar Games

I would put this alongside games like Hot Streak and Magical Athlete, where you’re racing, but you’re not fully in control of the race.

Whirly Derby Review

Positives

A great idea for a set collection game.

The components are good and work well.

Negatives

It’s obviously very light and random.

Whirly Derby Round-Up

A very fun and unique filler.

Rating

I give it 6/10