Last week my new game on BGA (Board Game Arena) was Flip 7. Though, I might have started it two weeks ago and just have finished up a number of games of it. This is an interesting game because I bought it, but I have thoughts on it for BGA. With my review, I’m going to talk about what works really well about it, and maybe why BGA isn’t the ideal play for it. But let’s talk about how Flip 7 plays.

How To Play Flip 7

Flip 7 is a push your luck race to 200 points. On your turn, you decide to either push your luck and flip a card, or stay and bank you points. If you stay, you are done for that round, but you total up your points and that gets added to your total.

If you do decide to flip, you flip a new card. But if the number on the card matches a number that you already have, you bust and you are out for that round. The cards are numbered 0 through 12 and the higher numbers are more common, so if you have high cards to closer you are to busting. That means no points banked to add to your total. There are also special cards you can flip. There are three power cards and a few modifier cards.

Power Cards

The power cards give you powers to use on yourself or on other players. The first is the second chance card. This card lets you bust once in a round. If you bust, you discard the second chance and the card you busted on and keep going. The next is the freeze ability. That locks a player out from continuing the round. They bank their points, but they can’t draw more. Finally there is the flip 3. That you can keep or give to a player to flip three cards, if they bust on that they bust.

Modifier Cards

The modifier cards are a bit different from the power cards, but they aren’t number cards. A lot of them just add to your score, though. Most of the modifier cards add in a number of points, so it might be something like plus 8 points. But it’s not an 8 card, so if you draw and eight you won’t bust. There is also a times two, that one is going to double your score for the round.

So when someone hits 200 they can stop and bank it. But it’s a push your luck game. That means that everyone else can continue. And as long as you are close, you have a shot to catch-up with a great push. One last thing worth noting is that you go through the deck fully before you shuffle again. So it is possible to count cards, though, there are a good number of cards.

What Doesn’t Work

Firstly, my what doesn’t work is really about BGA for this game. This game can work on BGA, but not asynchronously. It is a game where you will want to egg people on to get them to draw more. So when you aren’t chatting away and playing it lightly, it’s not as good. But I 100% see where it’s going to be great for a lot of groups in person and it’ll work for my group in person as well.

But that said, I do think it’ll be somewhat group dependent. How risk adverse is your group? Do you like to give each other grief as you play? Flip 7 is a game made for trash talking and teasing. If you know your group can’t handle that or doesn’t do that, Flip 7 won’t work for you.

What Works

Firstly, the game is simple, and that’s key for a game like Flip 7. I want to be able to teach it in a couple of minute and get playing it. And Flip 7 is even easier to teach as a push your luck game than something like Push which is still also easy to teach. Even the power cards are very easy to teach and pretty much make sense without explanation.

The game is also fast to play. I think that goes without saying for a simple push your luck game like this. But it’s important that it can be a filler type of game. It is on the complexity level of the classic games you maybe grew up playing. This is not more than Uno, but it needs to play much faster than Uno and it needs to be more fun. And it is going to hit both of those things.

I like the powers in the game. Now, I think for some people I could see an issue of the take that element of the game. But even for one of them it’s a risk. The freeze obviously locks someone out for a round. But it’s a good way to help control a runaway leader. And with the speed of the game, it’s not for long. And the Flip 3 is a great card because there is risk. You might want it for yourself. But there’s a chance you bust. But if you give it to someone else, they might get x2 or second chance. Now you hurt your cause.

Who Is Flip 7 For?

Flip 7 is a great filler game. And a great holiday game. By that I mean it’s an easy one to play with a bigger group and with non-gamers and to chat through. But for a game group, it’s a nice filler. The game is fast enough. And if you don’t want to play to 200, play to 150. And it’s a good one for that start of the night as it’s not too long, you play a game and then you play another as people finish arriving.

Final Thoughts and Grade on Flip 7

Flip 7 is a lot of fun as a game in person. I gave my reasons why I don’t think it works on BGA. But that is really if you are playing asynchronously. Even real time, though, I want to play it well chatting with people via Zoom, Discord, or something like that. Because this game is best when you talk a little bit of trash and when you tease someone for not pushing their luck.

I will say, though, that is going to be a pretty group dependent game. From reading the how to play section or just reading that it is push your luck, you’ll know if it works. And for me, I think it is going to work well for my group because of the simplicity of it. I know that not always does push your luck work for my group. Incan Gold, not a hit. But the simple push your luck games like Zombie Dice and Push, they work. And Flip 7 is a whole lot more in that vein than in the vein of Incan Gold.

My Grade: B
Gamer Grade: C-
Casual Grade: A
Strategy: 1
Luck: 9

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