Designers: Tedman Getschman Publisher: Big Potato Games Developers: Ed Naujokas, Drew Richards, James A. Vaughan 2-6 players | 20 min. | ages 8+ | MSRP $24.99 | BGG Entry Time to teach & learn: 2-3 minutes
Game Synopsis
Eight races down a metal cone stand between you and marble racing immortality. Secretly choose how many of your marbles to risk on each race, then load everyone’s marbles into the launcher and let them fly! They will spin around and around the metal disc until one marble drops through the center hole and wins the race. Finish first, second, or third and you get to claim a trophy and score points. Be careful as you spend your marbles, though, because you lose them as you use them. And even if your marbles are slow, there’s an underdog bonus that will keep you in contention. Whose marbles will score big and rule over the Whirlyverse?
Why We Love Whirly Derby
The subtitle to this game should be: Physics is Major Fun! Who knew gravity and centripetal acceleration could produce so many laughs and so much joy? The simple truth of Whirly Derby is this: everyone picks a number of marbles, then we all cheer them on as they spin toward the center of a gently sloping metal funnel. If this sounds both silly and ridiculous, by god, it is. You have very little control over the outcome of any race but, if you let yourself, you will become totally invested in how each marble traces its course around the track. You’ll indignantly curse the marbles who shoulder yours out of the way and you’ll take a victory lap and look for fist bumps when your marble rockets to the finish first. You’ll claim skill when it suits you and cry foul when physics betrays you. The advanced rules introduce an element of tactics and strategy with scoring cards that require some added thought and the Thunderball, a giant marble that can prevent any player’s marble from winning. The genius of Whirly Derby, though, is its gentle but stubborn invitation to relax and give in to the essential absurdity of the game. Whirly Derby reminds us that a game doesnt require skill or grand strategy or even success to produce lasting moments of pure fun.
Similo is a cooperative game of characters, communication, and deduction. Can you guide your team to the secret character in a grid of cards using only other character cards as clues? A vertical clue means the card is similar to the secret character. A horizontal clue means the card is different. Each round the pressure mounts, because the team has to remove more cards from the grid!
Similo comes in three flavors. You can play with people from history, myth, and storybook legend. If you’re up for a real challenge, you can even combine decks!
Similo is a springboard into the minds of everyone at the table. It provides a puzzle and laughs in equal measure. That’s a sure sign of Major Fun.
Somewhere in the universe, wombats gather in parties to find a champion. All creatures are welcome, facing challenges ridiculous and sublime. In fact every time they play, the challenges will change since the players themselves shape them. A word, a memory, a drawing, a gesture, even a song could be the key to unlock the heart of the judge.
Wombattle is a whacktastic party game driven by an unexpected dexterity element and whimsically weird art
There are two key
elements to Wombattle: the throwing board and wombat cards
The throwing board is
actually the game box with an insert covered with colored holes. The lid of the
box is nested vertically behind and serves as a backboard/backstop.
The 16 double sided
wombat cards will inspire each challenge during the game.
Each card depicts a
wombat and other friendly animals engaged in various activities. The wombat
might be doing mundane tasks like grocery shopping and hanging pictures. Then
again, the wombat might be cliff diving or landing on the moon. Packed with
little details, each card has a Richard Scarry-esque quality to it, inviting
the viewer to look again to discover new parts of the scene. It’s impossible to
overstate the how the whimsy and charm of the artwork helps create the world of
the game.
Each round in Wombattle,
players will face a challenge set by the judge (a fellow player). The shape of
the challenge is set by a feat of dexterity, a wombat card, and the imagination
of the judge
The feat of dexterity
determines the category for the round. The judge bounces a marble off the
backstop and into the grid on the throwing board. The hole where the marble
comes to rest has a color and the color of the hole determines the category:
Arts, Movement, Bravery, and Me-me-me.
Once you have the
category, the judge selects a wombat card. The wombat card and the category
will now combine in the mind of the judge to create a challenge.
The judge presents the
card to the group and, based on the category and some aspect of the scene shown
on the card, crafts a challenge that connects the two.
Each player will do his
or her best to face the challenge and the judge will select a winner. That
player will place an obstacle cone in the throwing board.
Then the players vote for
the solution they enjoyed the most. These votes will be tallied at the end.
The game continues with a
new player serving as judge each round
until one player has placed all his or her obstacle tokens into the board.
The general insanity and collective sense of fun
Wombattle creates makes the game a wonderful experience.
The categories themselves are a mix of standard
party game fare (drawing or gestures) and elements that are fresh. Bravery?
Come up with something memorable or daring. Me-me-me? A challenge that relates
to the judge in some way.
Players themselves set the boundaries of the game
from round to round; it’s a negotiation, a dance that creates a safe space for
everyone to have fun. It’s an unexpected and wonderful risk – to leave so much
room in the game for players to explore and define the limits of the game.
And in some ways, this makes Wombattle more
activity than game.
But that’s ok.
Wombattle is focused on fun, first and forever. It’s an arena for laughter and silliness.
Wombattle embodies an essential element that inspires the Major Fun Award: the simple joy of play. This joy is open to everyone. Any time, anywhere. Wombattle gives us permission to be playful. And it deflects attention away from winning. If you’re playing to win Wombattle, you should be playing a different game. Wombattle is a vehicle for laughter and fun and a reminder to not take yourself or the game too seriously.
To this end, each player writes down a reward they will give (a high five?, a compliment?, a cookie?, a hug?) and places it in the box. The winner will draw one and the player with the most votes will, too. It might not be a paragon of sophisticated game design but Wombattle is a work of demented genius. It soars because it is a source for the creative semi-structured joy we discover through play.
Written by: Stephen Conway
Special Note:
This review appears in the Spring 2019 issue of Casual Game Insider Magazine.
CGI publishes a wonderful selection of articles and reviews on a quarterly basis. In 2019, a Major Fun review will be featured in the next several issues.
The Spiel, Major Fun and CGI share a common goal: opening doors to the wider world of play. We hope this cross promotion will invite more people into the game community.
Your goal is to flush all the number cards from your hand, one card at a time. There are lots of low cards in the deck and fewer high cards.
The higher number you play, the more likely you are to flush it BUT here’s the twist. If two players play the same number, they are added together. This means low cards can often band together to beat high ones.
It’s a game about strength in numbers. And the more people you play with, the more fun the game becomes.
