FLIPTOONS: A Board Game That Shines on the Table

I’ve been playing games on Board Game Arena (BGA) since 2017, and I’ve seen that website get much bigger and better over the years. It’s amazing how many games are available there now!

But having over 1200 games to choose from can be a bit tricky, in my opinion. Sometimes, it’s tempting to just randomly pick a game on BGA. My friends from the Board Boys Podcast will sometimes send an invite to a new game, and we’ll try to play it without reading the rules first.

We have a rule, though. We never form an opinion about a game based on these first tries. Because, let’s be honest, even with BGA’s easy-to-use setup, trying to play any game with some real thought behind it without knowing the rules will almost always end in a mess.

That’s exactly what happened when I first tried to play FlipToons on BGA without understanding how it worked. I tried it a couple of times, and sadly, I just didn’t get it.

But then, the nice folks at Thunderworks Games sent us a copy of Fliptoons to be part of our play-to-win section at the Southern Board Game Fest. (You can get your tickets now for the festival happening March 20-22 in Lafayette, Louisiana!)

This past weekend, my friend Mitchell and I were busy unpacking and getting a lot of board games ready for the play-to-win area, and Fliptoons was one of them. Seeing the game in person was a whole different experience. The artwork really stood out, and I could look closely at how the animal cards worked.

So, at the end of the night, we decided to give it a try. It turned out to be a really fun little game! Players try to build a set of cards that are placed in a 2×3 grid, and the goal is to get the most points with that arrangement. Some cards work really well together, so the idea is to buy cards from the available ones that will make your set better. You want to build your set so that these good cards show up at the same time, and sometimes, in the right order.

There’s a cool twist, though, that I really enjoyed. Once a player reaches 30 points or more, that score starts the end of the game. It’s a sudden finish where everyone gets one last turn to buy cards, shuffle, and play. It’s a surprise! Just because someone gets a lot of points doesn’t automatically mean they win, though they do get a nice bonus of three points for hitting that mark.

Does luck play a big role? Does chance have a lot to do with who wins? Of course, it does. But that’s not a bad thing when the game is this quick.

I don’t think having this much randomness at the very end would work well in a longer game. But for a game that’s pretty short, like enjoying a quick drink and a snack, it works surprisingly well. I really like how the game sets up a dramatic finish where everyone sees their final card arrangements.

So, now I’m going back to BGA to see if the game feels as good on the screen as it does on the table. I think it will, now that I understand what the game is all about.

Until next time, let the good times roll!

We’re holding the festival in the same place, the Downtown Convention Center in Lafayette, Louisiana. But this time, we’re making the festival three days long! That means we’ll be starting on Friday afternoon with games and events! And we’re having a special event for game designers for the first time!

Plus, we’re making our food area bigger for even more gaming! As always, we’ll have: