Dustbiters: Pocket Edition – Outrun the Storm

Top off the tank, sharpen spikes and load ammo before you embark on a deadly race against a rival gang to outrun the impending doom of an unrelenting dust storm! Knock out all of your opponent’s vehicles and live to roam the roads another day.

Dustbiters: Pocket Edition is a fast-paced two-player car-combat game from Button Shy Games. It was designed by Robbie Fraser, Jan Willem Nijman, and Terri Vellmann, and features art by Terri Vellmann. Two players (ages 14+) can play in about 15 minutes.

Setup

Pick a direction for the convoy; one end is the front and the other is the back. Shuffle the 18 cards and choose a starting player. Deal four cards face up at the back of the convoy to the starting player, oriented toward them. Deal another four cards face up at the front of the convoy to player two. Next, deal three cards face down to each player, forming their hand, with the remaining cards placed nearby as the deck. Leave space for the scrap heap, where destroyed cards will begin to pile up.

Gameplay

To win Dustbiters, destroy every car belonging to your opponent in the convoy. On a player’s turn, they’ll have three actions to spend in one of four different ways. For the cost of one action, the player can:

BUILD: Place a car from your hand at the front of the convoy.

DRIVE: Move one of your cars one space forward or backward, swapping places with the adjacent car.

DRAW: Take the top card from the draw deck and add it to your hand. If the draw deck is empty, you can no longer take this action.

POWER: Use the power of one car in your convoy. Cars marked with a yellow lightning-bolt symbol have a special power, and each power may be used once per turn.

At the end of the player’s turn, the car at the very back of the convoy is destroyed by the dust storm and placed face up in the scrap pile. Then turn passes to the other player.

Play continues until a player is eliminated, ending immediately when they have no cars remaining.

Impressions

Dustbiters: Pocket Edition is the most portable, fast-paced, action-packed, turn-based car battle game. It feels like you’re in a Mad Max movie. It’s all the fun of Thunder Road: Vendetta, squeezed down into 18 cards.

While the rules are light, the depth of choices creates meaningful decisions each turn. At the same time, the dust storm acts as a countdown timer, adding another layer of strategy and planning while creating opportunities to pick off your opponent’s cars. Because of that constant pressure, Dustbiters: Pocket Edition does a great job of simulating the feeling of a race. It’s all about jockeying for position, finding tricky ways to take out your opponent’s cars, and staying ahead. Sometimes, it’s even worth sacrificing a car to the storm if you can knock out more than one of your opponent’s cars in return.

The heart of the game is the wild abilities each car has and the exciting action chaining you can trigger each turn when the cars are in the right positions. For example, the Sniper, when positioned at the back, can destroy another car. Paired with the Ramp Truck, you can destroy a car, then move the Sniper forward in the convoy to keep it safe.

12 out of the 18 card powers do not require actions to activate; some affect the vehicles surrounding them or are conditional.

Destructive Fun For Families

Dustbiters: Pocket Edition can skew younger than its advertised 14+ age. The actions are simple to remember, and the only real barrier to entry is reading and understanding what each vehicle can do. I could see it being accessible to a 4th–5th grader. The card art has a cool, cartoony vibe with nothing a parent would be concerned about.

Being a wallet game, it is super compact and portable. That makes it perfect for a lunch hour, a pub game, or anytime you’ve got a spare 15 minutes. Once you’re familiar with these souped-up death machines, games play quickly. There hasn’t been a session where we haven’t played two or three games in a row. We’re always ready to go again!

Grab your leather, goggles, and car keys. Then motor down to your friendly local game store, or pick up Dustbiters: Pocket Edition directly from Button Shy Games.

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The Family Gamers received a promotional copy of Dustbiters: Pocket Edition from Button Shy Games for this review.