I kept seeing FlipToons all over Instagram, but by the time I finally got to try it, FlipToons 2 had taken over my feed.
The artwork is adorable, and seeing the designer behind Cartographers made me curious. I enjoy seeing what designers come up with next when I've played and enjoyed their other games, so I was interested in giving this one a try, too.
In FlipToons, you're building a deck of cartoon actors. If you're new to deckbuilding, that means starting with a small deck and adding cards as you play to build a stronger combination of abilities. You'll flip those actors into a studio grid and try to earn enough Fame to trigger the final audition. The tricky part is getting your cards to work together, since some abilities can mess with your plans.
Setup
Each player starts with a starter deck of six toon cards, a Fame card, and a reference card. You'll also set up the market with five Price cards and five face up Toon cards arranged by rank, and add the Critic's Choice card. Then you're ready to play!
How It Plays
- Shuffle, and flip six cards into a 3 by 2 screen grid
- Cards trigger abilities and score Fame based on their grid placement and how they interact with neighboring toons
- Choose two actions: spend Fame at the market to add new actors to your deck, and/or pay 5 Fame to permanently dismiss an actor from your grid
Once someone reaches 30 Fame, the Final Flip is triggered. The player with the highest Fame at the final audition wins.
Who's This Game For?
FlipToons is for players who enjoy light deckbuilders, drafting cards, and figuring out how to make combinations work on a grid. If you like building a deck and watching it play out, this could be a good fit. Just know that luck is an important component and the order cards flip can have a pretty big impact on how the game unfolds.
Pros
- Easy to teach
- Vintage cartoon artwork
- Simple rules that are easy to pick up as you play
- Small box and relatively small footprint on the table
Considerations
- Ran longer than I'd like
- Luck has a big component on what cards are flipped and can make planning difficult
Bottom Line
I like the idea of building a deck and watching it do its thing, but the order you flip cards in FlipToons can make a huge difference. Having cards force you to flip other cards face down or dismiss someone you just drafted sometimes felt like I was undoing my own progress. That was especially noticeable coming from Cartographers, where I love how much control you have over your decisions. I wanted more of that feeling here, but the randomness made it harder to plan around what was happening. The game also ran a bit longer than I'd like.
I'd happily play FlipToons if someone brought it to the table, but it's not one I need to own. I'm still curious about Season Two, though. I'd like to see whether the changes address some of the things that didn't quite work for me
Recommendations
One of the best things about playing a new game is figuring out where it sits on the shelf, and what you should pull out when you want that particular itch scratched. FlipToons is a fun concept with its studio grid and cartoon deckbuilding, but the brutal randomness and pacing might leave you looking for something else. Depending on what you liked (or didn't like) about it, here are a few alternatives:
When you want grid placement without feeling helpless? → Castle Combo: draft cards and build out a 3x3 castle grid. Try to maximize scoring combos and neighbor bonuses. It gives you the satisfying spatial puzzle of placing cards together, but with way more control over your own engine.
When you want the card-layering visual puzzle? → Pop Art: overlap foreground and background cards in a grid to build out artistic displays on a 3x3 grid. It shares that same clever visual card-interaction feel, but focuses on careful planning where luck can play a big part depending on the cards you are dealt.
When you want to build a better deck over time? → Dominion: Second Edition: the classic deckbuilder. Start with a tiny, basic hand and slowly curate and upgrade your cards into a well-oiled machine. If the deckbuilding part of FlipToons was your favorite, this is where that feeling shines best.
When you want combo-building card efficiency from the same publisher? → Questline: another Thunderworks card game where you're playing out hands of cards to build combos and draft legends. It gives you that familiar compact card-game footprint while letting you steer how the combos come together. At the end of the game, you read the flavor text from your cards to create a story.
About the Author
Coty is a board game blogger, reviewer, and accidental LEGO art collector. When she’s not testing rulebooks or trying to beat her wife at two-player games, she’s playing ice hockey. Follow her adventures on Instagram or read more at KaCo Plays.
