Hello Boardgame friends! Today I wanted to do a review of one of my favorite small box games from Tasty Minstrel Games, “Flip City”. This box brings a lot of game in a small space-it is a great deckbuilder that is easy to learn and get played on the table!
The Basics
Flip City is designed by Chih-Fan Chen with art by Chen and Adam McIver. It is a 1-4 player game with a recommended age of 8+. Average play time is listed as 30-50 mins, and in my experience most games are closer to the longer end of that. It is published by Tasty Minstrel Games originally in 2014.
Gameplay
This deck of cards is exactly what you think it would be-a deck builder. It also has a fair amount of push your luck mechanics in it as well. In this game, you will be building your own city using two sided cards into your deck. You start with a deck and play cards from the deck, not into any type of hand. So what you draw and the order you draw it in is important.
During your turn you will be trying to acquire money to buy new cards or flip a card you already have. Each card has an “upgrade” that you can make to improve the card or push it to a level where you can amaze more victory points. You will continue to draw cards from the top of your deck, playing them to the pool in front of you and trying to avoid unhappiness icons. If you reveal a third unhappiness icon, your turn is immediately over and you lose all of the money.
Throughout the game you will be trying to amass the right combo of cards into your deck and will spend the game trying to upgrading city cards and also downgrading them at the right time to push to the win.
The game ends when someone scores eight victory points in a single turn and that player is the winner.
Impressions
This game has hit the table with two, three and four play counts in our house. We have played with all adults and mixed in with kids as young as nine. There are positives and negatives for that group of players. These are the impressions we have playing this game with the people we love.
The things that are less optimal:
-First time players struggle with a “strategy” and often flounder with when and what to purchase
-Younger players struggle with keeping everything on the correct card side and not accidentally flipping a card when they shouldn’t
-This is not a casual introduction to deck building, and in such makes it tough to play with newer players
The things we like:
-The art and design of these cards is great-easy on the eyes and the colors really pop
-The symbology is clear and easy to follow on the cards making it a game you don’t need to continue to reference during gameplay
-The size of this game is perfect for travel, it is a grab and go type of game and as a deckbuilder takes up a minimal amount of table space
-As a deckbuilder the addition of a press your luck mechanism is a nice twist and one I have not seen in any other game outside of this one
Overall
Flip City is a great game for players who want a quick play deckbuilder with a twist. I would recommend it for kids that have a grasp on basic deckbuilding skills and adults that are looking for a simple to learn and fun to play game. Check out this great title from Tasty Minstrel Games today!