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Players: 2-5 (ages 8+)
Playing Time: 15-20 minutes
It’s pretty tough to find a game that the whole family can truly enjoy. If it’s simple enough for younger kids to play, it’s often too simple (or maybe too silly…or too repetitive) for grown-ups. If it’s interesting enough for grown-ups, it’s often too complicated for kids. But that’s not the case with Flip Out—a bright and colorful card-collecting game that really is family-friendly.
To begin, each player gets a rack filled with six colorful cards. The object of the game, then, is to take turns swapping, switching, and rearranging cards to collect sets of four, five, or six adjacent cards of the same color. Once you have a set, you can remove them from the rack, set them in your scoring pile, refill your rack, and start all over again.
Sounds pretty simple, right? Well… that’s because I forgot to mention the catch: the cards are double-sided—and your opponents can use the cards that are visible to them. If the backs of your cards happen to make up a matching set, an opponent can swipe them and add them to his or her scoring pile. If you have a card that someone else wants, it’s perfectly acceptable to swap.
The swapping, stealing, and scoring then continue until the cards run out. And the player with the most cards in his or her scoring pile wins the game.
Without any numbers to add, words to spell, or intricate strategies to think through, Flip Out makes a great game for the family. Younger family members can learn (and play) without difficulty. All they need to do is flip, swap, and collect cards, simply matching the colors. At the same time, though, Mom and Dad (and Grandpa and Grandma) will happily sit down to play it time and time again without losing interest—because, even though it’s a simple game, the fast pace will keep players of all ages interested (and coming back for more).
Of course, if you prefer thoughtful strategy games, you might be disappointed. After all, Flip Out is more about luck than anything else. Sure, there are plenty of strategies that could work—and you can definitely try to plan your turns well in advance. But there’s a pretty good chance that, before your next turn comes, an opponent or two will swap some of your cards (or steal four or five of them) to throw your carefully-planned strategies right out the window.
Still, the more players you add, the more card-swapping, set-stealing opportunities you’ll have—and the better your chances that your opponents will (occasionally) let you carry out your strategies. And, since Flip Out is such a fun-filled, fast-paced game, you shouldn’t have a problem finding plenty of willing—and eager—opponents of all ages.
