SNAP Review – Flip 7

All right Anitra, hit me!

Ow. You were waiting for that, weren’t you!

Maybe?

Well that’s not what I meant. I meant like Blackjack!

Or something else?

Or like something else.

This is a SNAP review for Flip 7.

Game

Flip 7 is a family card game designed by Eric Olsen and published by The Op. The box says it’s for ages 8 and up, since there’s a little bit of math. And it’s for three or more players.

How many more? As many as you want! The rules suggest you’ll probably want to add another copy of the game if you’re playing with more than 18 people.

That’s a lot of people! What are they going to see when they open this box?

Art

As with most games that are just numbers on cards, there’s not a TON of noticeable art here. But what there is, is effective. Each number card is just a single number – in numerals and in English – in a font that takes up most of the card space. There’s a border and a bit of colored decoration, which make it prettier without getting distracting.

You need to know this is a special deck of cards – there are twelve 12s, eleven 11s, and so on, all the way down to a single 1 card and a single zero card.

There are also modifier cards – these all have an orange background and a smaller font, so it’s easy to distinguish them from the number cards.

And there are three types of special action cards. These also have a solid color background, and both text and symbols to remind you what they do.

Mechanics

Speaking of what the cards do, let’s talk about how to play.

Your goal in Flip 7 is to be the first player to score 200 points. But you cannot do that in a single round. Each round, you’ll score points based on the cards in front of you. But you’ll bust and get zero points for the round if you have two cards with the same number.

Let’s walk through what a typical round looks like:

The dealer gives out a face-up card to each player. Most of the time, these will be number cards.

Once everyone has a card, the dealer goes around again, and each player will state whether they want to get another card or keep what they already have.

Anitra, here, asks for another card and gets a +6 modifier. This will add to her total if she doesn’t bust. It’s also a modifier, so it doesn’t count as a unique number.

Claire asks for another card and gets a 2. Now she has two numbers.

Asher asks for another card and gets a 10, which he already has. So he busts out of the round.

Andrew gets a “Freeze” card, which he can choose to play on anyone who is still in the round… and he plays it on Anitra, holding her to 17 points this round.

Claire chooses to keep going and gets a “Second Chance” card! We’ll talk about that in a minute.

Asher already busted, so Andrew is next, and he draws a Flip Three. This forces a player to take the next three cards off the deck, stopping only if they bust. Andrew can use this on any player who has not stopped yet this round – and he chooses to use it on himself.

It works out this time; and now I have four numbers, totaling 27 points.

Let’s get back to that Second Chance card that Claire has. After a few more turns, she draws a 7, which she already has. The Second Chance protects her from busting now – she just discards it, along with the 7 card she just drew.

Meanwhile, Andrew has drawn a zero, which does not give him any more points. Then on his next turn, he draws a 10. He now has seven number cards – a Flip 7! This gives him 15 bonus points, and immediately ends the round for everyone.

Since the round is now over, we total everyone’s points.

I get 55: 40 for my cards, plus 15 for the Flip 7. Anitra gets just 17, Claire gets 31. And unfortunately for Asher, he gets nothing because he busted.

After scoring, gather up all the cards and put them on the discard pile. Don’t shuffle them back in to the deck! The dealer passes to the left, and starts off the top of the deck again.

Keep dealing and letting players make decisions whether to stay and keep their points, or ask for another card and risk busting. When the deck DOES run out, shuffle up the discard pile and keep playing.

Check at the end of every round to see if any player has passed 200 points. If so, the game is over, and the player with the most points wins!

Expectations

So Anitra, what did we expect from Flip 7?

You told me it was kind of like Blackjack, so that’s what I expected – that nail-biting moment when you have to decide whether to risk it big with another card, or stay safe with what you already have.

So many people had been talking about Flip 7 being one of their favorite new party games. So, I expected – a party game. Easy to learn, easy to teach, big “whoa” moments, things like that.

Surprises

But there were some surprises for us. So what surprised you?

I have two main surprises. The first is how good this game is at drawing everyone in. We only played with groups of up to seven people (only!), but I can see it getting bigger than that – because everyone is watching to see who busts or who’s close to getting seven unique numbers and ending the round. It’s got that crowd appeal that we like in party games.

My other surprise is not so great. The official rules for the game are really rigid when it comes to the special cards. If you’re dealt one of these Freezes as your first card, you have to immediately resolve it, by playing it on someone. This prevents them from being able to participate in that round at ALL and can really suck the fun out of a game quickly.

We ended up making a house rule that any Freezes dealt as someone’s first card just get thrown in the discard pile.

Personally, I was surprised at just how much even our kids love playing this game. It’s a good reminder of the enduring qualities of a single deck of cards. You don’t need amazing art or complex mechanics to make a game good – even though I like those things. But Flip 7 is an excellent reminder of that. The Op has lots of experience making incredibly thematic games, but here they winnowed the formula down to something basic, and classic, and it just works.

Recommended?

We absolutely recommend Flip 7 for families.

Our youngest is a legend in our family for fearlessly pushing his luck in games of Zombie Dice when he was just two years old. Flip 7 probably can’t be played well by a two year old, but since the core gameplay loop is really around pattern recognition – just seeing numbers, not necessarily knowing what they mean – you don’t need math. And so this game can flex really young. Similarly, anyone who has ever played games with a classic deck of playing cards will kind of understand what’s going on in Flip 7 in a few rounds… So you can get your grandparents involved too!

This is a game that has absolutely zero setup. You pull it out of its little box and start dealing out cards. You can bring it anywhere and start playing in under a minute.

And so, with twelve (or more!) players out of this box, this tiny package is a whole lot of fun no matter the age or the mix of ages.

We’re going to give Flip 7 five cards out of five.

That’s Flip 7 – in a SNAP!

Get a copy of Flip 7 at your friendly local game store, directly from The Op, or on Amazon.

---

The Family Gamers received a copy of Flip 7 from The Op for this review.

This post contains affiliate links, which do not change your price, but help support The Family Gamers.

SNAP review music is Avalanche, provided courtesy of You Bred Raptors?