Base price: $20.
1 – 4 players.
Play time: 15 – 30 minutes.
BGG Link
Logged plays: 8 

Full disclosure: A review copy of FlipToons was provided by Thunderworks Games.

You wouldn’t believe how badly I wanted to spell it FlipToonz. I genuinely, briefly, thought that was the correct spelling, and while I’m ashamed, I wouldn’t be doing right by What’s Eric Playing? if I didn’t immediately put that shame on blast for everyone’s benefit. It’s a team effort, here. But, there’s always new games to review, and you can imagine how intrigued I was by an entry-level deckbuilder from our friends at Thunderworks. It’s a bit off-brand for them, which usually means they’re pretty confident that it’s good. Plus, it’s a Jordy Adan co-design, so, makes sense to me. Let’s see how it plays!

In FlipToons, players take on the roles of talent agents for the next great animated show. You’re going to Flip Valley to cast six characters and see how they test with audiences, with the goal of getting as famous as possible! Fame is good and has absolutely no consequences. Unfortunately, not all of their skills are well-designed to work in concert with each other. Some of them are actually deeply incompatible. It might be a generational curse or something; best not to ask too many questions. But, the allure of the silver screen compels you, so you’re gonna gather them up anyways. Will you be able to make the next big animated hit before Disney cancels it after three seasons? (Two and some change, really.)

Contents

• Setup
• Gameplay
• Player Count Differences
• Strategy
• Pros, Mehs, Cons
• Overall

Setup

Not a ton here. Each player gets a starting deck:

Shuffle the rest of the Toon Cards:

Place five face-up under the Market Cards to form the Market Row. They should be placed lowest rank on the left to highest rank on the right.

Give each player a How to Play and Fame Tracker Card. Choose a player to get the First Player Card, and set the Critic’s Choice Card nearby.

You should be ready to start!

Gameplay

This one’s not too tough. Each round you’re going to make a cast of (usually) six toons to try and accrue fame. If that show doesn’t get enough, the game keeps going. Your goal is 30! Hit that and you initiate the Final Flip. Let’s dive in.

So, at the start of each round, each player will shuffle their deck and reveal six cards. This is done by making a three-card upper row from left to right and then a three-card lower row from left to right. Once that’s done, you Check Fame. Add up all the Fame from all the face-up cards (some may get flipped face-down during the reveal) and track that on your Fame Tracker.

Then, it’s time to hit the Market! Each player has two Market Actions, and they can take both or either one twice. You can buy a card from the Market by paying the cost above it and placing the purchased card on top of your deck, or you can dismiss a face-up card by removing it from your revealed set and moving it to your Dismissed Pile and paying 5 Fame. Once you’ve done your two actions, refill the Market by drawing cards from the Toon Deck until there are five in the Market and then reorganizing them from lowest rank on the left to highest rank on the right. Then, take your played cards and put them on top of your deck (so you can shuffle the deck at the start of the next round). If anyone hit 30 Fame this round during the Check Fame step, the player who hit the highest Fame gets the Critic’s Choice card and the Final Flip happens next round. If not, pass the First Player Card to the left and start a new round! If you’re playing a two-player game, also discard the highest- and lowest-cost cards in the Market.

Play continues until the Final Flip. When that happens, start a new round but do not do a Market Phase. The player with the highest Fame after the Check Fame step wins! Note that the Critic’s Choice Card counts as +3 Fame.

Player Count Differences

Not a ton here either, as usual. There are games with some pretty stark player count differences; I just haven’t played a lot of them lately. Here, you’re dealing with a random card market and very few cards that allow for player interaction (except for the Pig). With more players, I suppose it’s technically feasible for players to gang up on another one by just pigging their whole deck, but that’s not super likely and is pretty funny, so I’m going to give it a pass. There just aren’t a ton of any one card, I suppose. You can’t really have outsized impacts on any player beyond taking cards they want from the market, and the nice thing about Board Game Arena plays of this one is that I rarely even see what my opponent grabs from the market. Out of sight, out of mind. I do appreciate the snappiness of a two-player game, though, so maybe that’s a slight preference? Not much of one, at least.

Oh! One thing worth noting. In two-player games, at the end of a round, discard the highest- and lowest-cost cards in the Market.

Strategy

• Look for synergies between cards. Some cards work well with low-rank cards, some copy cards that generate lots of fame, and some will let you buy more from the Market! Figuring out what strategy to pursue based on the cards available is a lot of the game and half the fun.
• You really want to go flip-heavy or dismiss-heavy; it’s risky to do both. If you end up doing both, you’ll likely flip some of your dismiss cards or vice-versa, which can break a lot of the established synergies between those cards.
• Low-rank cards can also (literally) stack up nicely. Ostriches, for instance, draw the next card from your deck on top of them (but still score). You can keep stacking ostriches if you’re a little lucky and a lot crazy.
• The Cat is a generally all-around good card in the late game, once you’ve cleared out all your starter cards. It earns 1 Fame per starter card in your dismissed pile, so, that’s pretty lucrative by the time you’ve gotten there. It’s just not a particularly compelling turn 1 purchase when you haven’t done anything yet.
• Don’t be afraid to dismiss a card if it’s not working for you anymore! Sometimes your strategy changes. We like to say it evolves; it sounds more intentional. If that happens, sometimes cards aren’t working for you anymore and you just need to drop them. That’s okay! It’s part of the game.
• The Pig is a rude card, but hey, if it works it works. It’s just -1 Fame. Why would you ever add that to your deck? You wouldn’t. It gets added by another player. You can move it once you hire it or dismiss it; either way, place it in the other player’s deck. Or you can force them to draw it with a Snake if you plan ahead.
• Remember that just because you activate the final flip does not mean you’ll win. That’s a pretty key thing to remember; sometimes you managed to do a thing that gave you 30 Fame that’s not sustainable. That Critic’s Choice +3 Fame is supposed to help you, but it might not be enough to put a lucky play over the edge.

Pros, Mehs, and Cons

Pros

• I like the art style; it’s classic. It reminds me of old-style animation in a very positive way; I like it a lot.
• This is an extremely easy deckbuilder to pick up and play. You don’t even need to worry about the cards too much. They don’t do terribly complicated things and they’re all a means to an end for scoring as many points as possible in one turn.
• I like the small-scale spatial play of this one; it’s interesting from a strategy standpoint and it introduces some neat probabilities you can mess with. The cards can affect each other based on their placement in this small grid, and you need to optimize for the ideal grid without getting too into the weeds. It’s interesting.
• Very portable. It’s a small-box deckbuilder, which is pretty uncommon, as well.
• There’s plenty of different workable synergies, which is fun. You can have a lot of fun discovering how things work for you in the game and then hoping the cards you want come up (or finding other ways to make the cards that do come up work for you).
• Seems reasonably easy to expand on if that’s a goal, as well. I’d love to see another one; they could be different eras of animation or different storytelling styles or something that would be fun to dive into. Different genres where each genre has a few deckbuilding synergies or foci would be really neat.

Mehs

• When you have a very thin deck, shuffling a small number of cards is a little annoying. This never really goes away; nobody likes shuffling 6 or 7 cards; it feels a bit perfunctory.
• The Rooster feels like a misprint. I think it’s supposed to say 1 Fame per card ranked 13 or lower, but since it says card rank 13 or lower, it almost sounds like you score 1 Fame if you have one or more 0s, one or more 1s, and etc. (so one Fame per unique card rank below 13). Feels like it could be clearer.

Cons

• I know in my bones that someone’s going to be mad when they initiate the Final Flip and then lose. It happened to me and was extremely funny; them’s the breaks, sometimes. But be mindful of your players before you pull this one out if you have anyone who gets whiny when luck doesn’t go their way; this is the exact kind of thing that will set them off.

Overall: 8.5 / 10

Overall, I’m a big fan of FlipToons! I wasn’t sure what to make of it at first, but I think Thunderworks’s confidence in the game is extremely well-placed. Complexity-wise, I’d definitely place it on the lowest end of their offerings that I’ve played, but that does not mean it’s not fun or not worth your time. It’s exactly what it purports to be: an engaging, approachable, and snappy introductory deckbuilding game. There are a bunch of different types of cards, which vaguely benefits experienced players who know more about the available synergies, but there’s something really fun about discovering them yourself, so who’s really winning, here? I like the old-timey animation art style, as well; it gives the game a unique and nostalgic vibe despite the high production value and newness of the general aesthetic. I do think it’s fun that the game’s finale is one last turn to see if you’re going to win and leaving it to (influenced) chance keeps things interesting. In a good group, that will lead to celebrations if there’s an upset and a rueful congratulations from the favorite, and I think that’s fun. It’s a strong offering in a more casual market than the usual one for Thunderworks, and it makes me hope that they consider broadening out in this way. I liked FlipToons a lot! If you’re looking for a fun and casual deckbuilder, you’re nostalgic for a bygone day of animation, or you just like flipping cards, I’d recommend checking this one out!

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