One Last Flip in FlipToons: Lucky Lions and the Solo Mode
Find and hire the best cast of animal characters to star in famous cartoons with the quick gameplay found in FlipToons.
My first solo plays of FlipToons felt like I saw everything in the game, so I wanted to circle back to see if there might be more to it. Make no mistake: This is a great game! Just seemed like I experienced the majority of the useful combinations already, but I wanted to give it another chance. The fantastic artwork and cartoon animals were hard to resist for long!
Game Overview
Game Name: FlipToons
Publication Year: 2025
Designers: Jordy Adan & Renato Simões
Artist: Diego Sá
Publisher: Thunderworks Games
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Different characters generate fame, but this is a careful process of hiring and dismissing. The random flip that happens each round provides more and more fame, yet a lot of luck is involved! With better strategies and a small cast of characters, victory might just result in, “That’s all, folks!”
First Play
August 3, 2025
Complexity
2
Latest Play
September 7, 2025
Expansions
1
Setup Time
Almost None
Lifetime Plays
6
Play Time
10 Minutes
High Score
34
Game Area
20" x 20"
Low Score
26
More and More Fame
Starting characters are pretty unknown… A caterpillar and snail simply don’t have the exciting cartoon experience yet!
Over the course of play, though, the goal is to generate at least 30 fame during a round in order to win. This requires new characters to be hired, and others to be dismissed.
Essentially, it’s about gaining the most from flipping over a grid of 6 cards. A few abilities might make more useful, yet it’s important to thin the deck and have a focused strategy.
Although fun and quick, my issue is with how limited the card selection is: I pretty much know how to win every time.
The Lucky Lions
Even at the highest difficulty level, I still won during both of these plays. It was still cool: It came down to the last flip! But I had a pretty good idea of what cards to always pick.
Not every card is used each play, so it’s never a guarantee that something will come out, but this hasn’t felt like it increased the variety in a meaningful way. Just… Random.
Gameplay is all about creating a single hand of cards, though, which is a neat mechanic with a main focus.
I enjoyed the artwork, as always! There is a lot to appreciate here, although the novelty and enjoyment may be limited.
Little Cartoon Stories
There are lots of fun story possibilities with the way the characters are hired to star in a show. Mine usually end up with a very quick narrative tale as I clean everything up.
It’s also fun to think about the possibilities… Who exactly is this tiger serving up? A party turkey, or a superhero rooster? And is someone yelling, “It’s GR-E-E-EAT!” each scene? Ha!
It’s not that I would have had more fun with an overly complex game, yet I was reminded of Fantasy Realms.
That’s another simple set of rules, but the high variety in the cards makes me want to keep trying out new choices.
Solo and a Big Button
One of the nicest parts of the solo mode is just how simple it is to run! It’s about removing cards and speeding up an internal timer, but not much else changes from multiplayer.
The mini-expansion is also possible to use for solo, although it’s more like a single-use do-over turn. One character can recharge it, but that’s a rarity.
I still liked the concept here, and my first play or two were excellent! That feels like I got everything out of the game.
It’s a nice choice for the right player, though, and I hope that these animal characters bring lots of joy to those who play!
How Many Plays are Too… Few?
I have games in my collection I’ve played hundreds or even thousands of times. You can never play something too much! Well, technically you can, but I think the conversation usually focuses on the opposite end of the spectrum and how no one plays a game “enough.” I even fall into this category at times, classifying a lot of my solo games as underplayed.
That’s because I know I haven’t experienced everything they have to offer, and there’s a reason to keep playing. Yet this isn’t the case with every game, and I’ve sometimes thought that playing a handful of times meant I never gave a game a chance. At the same time, that’s honestly all I need to get all I’ll get out of it. Not every game will be played forever.
It’s important to note that even if I only play a game a few times and move it along, I likely still had fun with it! In this case, I think it was a little too light for me and the limited variety didn’t bring about enough of a repeatable challenge.
Session Overview
Play Number: 5 & 6
Expansion: FlipToons: Big Button Mini-Expansion
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Play Details: Hard Difficulty Level
Outcome: 30, 30 (2 Wins)
Not surprisingly, I won both times with the bare minimum and at the last second. That was exciting! But also not enough to keep me interested in coming back to play again. Still, I adore the artwork and the hyper-focus on creating a single hand of cards that will score well. A few good plays were worth the experience of making up silly cartoons!
%
1 Play
Affordability
Price & Value
7
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
7
Originality
Design & Theme
5
Quality
Components & Rules
10
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
6
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
6
+ Pros (Positives)
- The artwork is excellent, conveying a personality for each of the different animals that can be found in the deck.
- Focusing on a single hand of cards to flip over is a neat idea, especially since it’s not just about acquiring everything.
- Play time is quick and there is practically no downtime between rounds, aside from shuffling a few cards together.
- Since luck is a major component, it’s actually kind of fun to flip over the cards to see if a plan is working or not.
- Very rarely are there times when a round goes so poorly that there isn’t an opportunity to improve the deck.
- Icons are easy to identify and most of the abilities are straightforward without any questions, making it easy to play.
– Cons (Negatives)
- Variety is very limited, and once a winning strategy is found, there aren’t a lot of reasons to return to play again.
- It may come from experience, yet even the hardest difficulty level isn’t too much of a challenge after winning once.
- Removing more cards from the market each round makes sense, but feels a little clunky with reordering the cards.
- A lot of random luck plays into scoring enough fame, and the mini-expansion almost feels like a required game mode.
Victory Conditions
Score 30+ Points
- Overall Goal Progress 100%
Goals and Milestones
Win at least 1 game at the easy difficulty level.
Win at least 1 game at the normal difficulty level.
Win at least 1 game at the hard difficulty level.
Continue the Conversation
What do you enjoy about FlipToons? Do you have any other solo games you like about cartoons? I wanted to have some more fun with this one, but sometimes, just a handful of plays is good enough to get enough out of a single game. Pretty sure I just leaned into the lions every time I played… Wise decision! Moving onto some cozier games that I’m excited for!
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