2015 English Second Edition (*Review Copy)
Published by: Tasty Minstrel Games (TMG)
# of Players: 1 to 4
Published by: Tasty Minstrel Games (TMG)
# of Players: 1 to 4
Flip City is a deck-building game that has players upgrading their cards by flipping them over. Players are taking turns trying to push their luck to have the best city. The residents of your city love change but do not like the construction that goes with it. Try to do too much and they wont let you do anything on your turn. The player who gains 8 or more points in a single turn wins the game. Do you know when it is time to stop playing cards and build, or will you fold under the pressure? To find out more about Flip City, I invite you to see my take on Flip City.
Components
Flip city is a small deck-builder that comes with everything you need to play it. The contents of this game are cards and a rule book, that is it. If your expecting something flashy or wooden, it is not in this package. Thankfully because of the game only being cards and rules, it is able to fit in a nice small box that is very sturdy and easy to travel with. Flip City will not take up more shelf than it needs. The cards are very thick and have colorful Sim city type art. Everything is clear and easy to understand on the cards. The rule book is not so much of a book as a giant folded page. Even though it is only 1 giant page of rules, the rule book explains everything you need to know and has colorful illustrations to help understand the finer points. Flip City provides quality cards in a small package that is perfect for the type of game it is.
Flip city is a small deck-builder that comes with everything you need to play it. The contents of this game are cards and a rule book, that is it. If your expecting something flashy or wooden, it is not in this package. Thankfully because of the game only being cards and rules, it is able to fit in a nice small box that is very sturdy and easy to travel with. Flip City will not take up more shelf than it needs. The cards are very thick and have colorful Sim city type art. Everything is clear and easy to understand on the cards. The rule book is not so much of a book as a giant folded page. Even though it is only 1 giant page of rules, the rule book explains everything you need to know and has colorful illustrations to help understand the finer points. Flip City provides quality cards in a small package that is perfect for the type of game it is.
Gameplay
Flip City has players drawing cards till they have enough money to do what they want on their turn, or have enough victory points played to win the game. Sounds easy, but if you collect more than two unhappiness points when drawing cards, you bust and your turn is over. During a player's turn, the player will draw and play one card from his deck and any conditions that may have been triggered. Cards will give money, points, unhappiness, and abilities during your turn. After the first card is played, you have to decide if you will draw and play a second card. You keep making this decision till you either get what you want out of your turn or if you reveal a third unhappiness icon. Once you get that their unhappiness icon you discard your play area and end your turn performing no actions. If you stop before you get 3 unhappiness, you can do one of 3 things. You can build, which allows you to buy a card from the money you earned that turn. Instead of building you could flip over one of the cards in your discard pile, paying the flip cost. This will change the card that is in your deck. The last option is that you can develop, which is buying and flipping that card by paying both costs.
Flip City has players drawing cards till they have enough money to do what they want on their turn, or have enough victory points played to win the game. Sounds easy, but if you collect more than two unhappiness points when drawing cards, you bust and your turn is over. During a player's turn, the player will draw and play one card from his deck and any conditions that may have been triggered. Cards will give money, points, unhappiness, and abilities during your turn. After the first card is played, you have to decide if you will draw and play a second card. You keep making this decision till you either get what you want out of your turn or if you reveal a third unhappiness icon. Once you get that their unhappiness icon you discard your play area and end your turn performing no actions. If you stop before you get 3 unhappiness, you can do one of 3 things. You can build, which allows you to buy a card from the money you earned that turn. Instead of building you could flip over one of the cards in your discard pile, paying the flip cost. This will change the card that is in your deck. The last option is that you can develop, which is buying and flipping that card by paying both costs.
Flipping cards is like getting rid of your useless starter cards for a more useful card. Sometimes flipping cards will also cause an ability to happen like putting the card into another person's deck or gain a point. What you are trying to do is build a deck that you can cycle through to get 8 points without busting on unhappiness. Please note that it is very important to always know which side of your deck is the playing side. If at any time you can not determine which side of a card it should be on, you have to shuffle back in it's deck with the front side up. Once you have built, flipped or developed, you will discard your play area and the next player will take their turn. You will keep doing this till someone plays 8 points during one turn and that person will be the winner.
Final Thoughts
Flip City is enjoyable as a push your luck filler game. I liked and disliked the use of both sides of a card. I thought it was a great way to do an upgrade/downgrade of a building, but you also had to take great care when discarding and shuffling to make sure everything is on their proper sides. Also you have to try and shuffle under the table or away from your vision so that you do not know where cards are while shuffling. That can be very tricky to do. The game itself plays very fast and was very easy to pick and learn. Having 6 cards with 2 different sides each made it very easy to memorize what each card did. I enjoyed playing this, but would not make it the focal point of my game night. I also worry that it could get old with the same cards each game, but TMG recently released an expansion with more cards to add variety. If you enjoy push your luck games, then Flip City will make an excellent addition to your collection. If you are expecting a city building game or your standard deck-builder then you may be disappointed. I found the deck-building aspect to be minor compared to risk taking portion of the game. Everyone I played with had fun and I will be keeping Flip City in my collection as a great game to take on the go or as a filler.
Flip City is enjoyable as a push your luck filler game. I liked and disliked the use of both sides of a card. I thought it was a great way to do an upgrade/downgrade of a building, but you also had to take great care when discarding and shuffling to make sure everything is on their proper sides. Also you have to try and shuffle under the table or away from your vision so that you do not know where cards are while shuffling. That can be very tricky to do. The game itself plays very fast and was very easy to pick and learn. Having 6 cards with 2 different sides each made it very easy to memorize what each card did. I enjoyed playing this, but would not make it the focal point of my game night. I also worry that it could get old with the same cards each game, but TMG recently released an expansion with more cards to add variety. If you enjoy push your luck games, then Flip City will make an excellent addition to your collection. If you are expecting a city building game or your standard deck-builder then you may be disappointed. I found the deck-building aspect to be minor compared to risk taking portion of the game. Everyone I played with had fun and I will be keeping Flip City in my collection as a great game to take on the go or as a filler.
Taco gives Flip City a rating of...
7.5 out of 10
Pros:
+ Filler game that is small enough to take anywhere
+ Flipping cards to upgrade/downgrade buildings
+ Push your luck element is done very well
+ Very easy to teach and learn to play
Cons:
- Pain to shuffle due to having keep the cards on a certain side without looking
- Only 6 different cards in base game (expansion does add more variety)
- Games may feel the same after a few plays
Pros:
+ Filler game that is small enough to take anywhere
+ Flipping cards to upgrade/downgrade buildings
+ Push your luck element is done very well
+ Very easy to teach and learn to play
Cons:
- Pain to shuffle due to having keep the cards on a certain side without looking
- Only 6 different cards in base game (expansion does add more variety)
- Games may feel the same after a few plays
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