Flip Wars review: A flippant lack of content
By Just Lunning
Flip Wars undoubtedly succeeds at everything it attempts, but unfortunately, it attempts so little that much is left to be desired.
Developer: Over Fence
Publisher: Nintendo
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Release Date: August 10th (consoles), 2017
Flip Wars is the latest game in a string of multiplayer-only Nintendo Switch exclusive party games. Flip Wars continues the theme of forcing you to be social by playing with your friends or creating new ones on rooftops of nearby buildings. The single player content is non-existent outside of playing against CPU’s. Luckily, Flip Wars local and online multiplayer is interesting enough to justify its 10 dollar price and guarantee at least a few hours of play. Flip Wars uses a ton of fun and interesting concepts. Flip Wars undoubtedly succeeds at everything it attempts, but unfortunately, it attempts so little that much is left to be desired.
The premise of Flip Wars is essentially identical to that of Bomberman, except in this case your entire body is the bomb. You’re in a four player arena setting with the intention of marking the entire field with your specific color. This objective is achieved by jumping on a panel which creates a ripple effect that both eliminates adjacent foes, and changes nearby panels to your color.
There are also other really neat things built into the map known as “gimmicks” which also assist in changing panel color. Gimmicks are almost always a joy to use. Although, I say that as if there were a ton of them available to enjoy. There are not. Despite being an incredibly fun feature, Flip Wars features a handful of player-controlled gimmicks to help change the course of battle. I wish there were more of these in general. That sentiment often feels like a running theme to Flip Wars.
Some of the more creative hazards always felt thrilling to avoid, but they seemed to have just the bare minimum of idea expansion.
When it succeeds, Flip Wars feels like a fun, quirky addition to any library, but unfortunately, it fails to flesh out much of its ideas past a bare minimum. There are many items you can find in the middle of matches, but none of them particularly change the flow of your game. Items are often there for minor, cumulative changes. For the most part, items just increase your base statistics by making you faster or slightly expanding your panel range. I would like to put an emphasis on slightly. Even if you have 20 or more items than an opponent, you will still feel on an even playing field. I’m not a fan of overpowered items, but neutering something labeled a power up to the point of uselessness takes away any reason for me to go after said item. Additionally, the lack of item variation just makes their overall presence feel almost unneeded.
To its credit, Flip Wars does manage to have a fairly varied library of playable stages. You can enjoy a total of 12 playable stages, and each one has its own set of hazards to enthrall you. Figuring out how each stage would attempt to deter me was one of the biggest treats I got out of Flip Wars.
Some of the more creative hazards always felt thrilling to avoid, but they seemed to have just the bare minimum of idea expansion. Each stage, despite having its own set of features, maintained a relatively similar setup to any other. Changing stages at times felt like a wallpaper swap rather than a stage swap. The ideas were definitely there; it was just another case of Flip Wars’ lack of follow-through.
Despite my mostly mediocre opinion on Flip Wars, I have enough faith in the devs to keep my eye on the game. There are multiple sections on the main menu labeled as “coming soon” which I can only imagine means they plan to update Flip Wars with more content down the line. If Flip Wars is indeed a huge work-in-progress, it could become a fantastic game. The fun ideas are all present, but each one lacks the content that makes the difference between idea and concept.
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Flip Wars. 6.5. Flip Wars is yet another fun party title from Nintendo. Alas, just being fun doesn’t justify a purchase. Many of the concepts used in Flip Wars are interesting but lack the depth or volume for me to call them anything greater than a concept. It may be worth revisiting in a few months after some heavy updates.. Over Fence.
A copy of this game was provided to App Trigger for the purpose of this review. All scores are ranked out of 10, with .5 increments. Click here to learn more about our Review Policy.