Fish ‘n’ Flip

About this board game

Fish ’n’ Flip is a 2019 game for 1–6 players, playable in about 30 minutes, in which you free maritime animals trapped as fishing-net bycatch. Play competitively to free the most animals or cooperate to rescue as many as possible.

Animal cards are arranged in rows and columns. On your turn, play one of your two action cards to exchange positions or flip a card, changing the direction the animal faces. When several matching animals face the same way, they escape from the net.

Escaping groups create a cascading challenge. Any cards above them slide down in a Tetris-style movement, potentially forming new groups that can escape. After every turn, another animal is added to the top of each column, so the net steadily becomes more difficult to manage.

• Form groups of matching animals facing the same direction.
• Use action cards to swap positions or reverse an animal’s direction.
• Plan around sliding cards and cascading escapes.
• Keep every column below seven cards to avoid losing.

If a column reaches seven cards in height, all players lose. Once every animal card has been played, players either compare how many animals remain trapped in cooperative mode or count how many they freed in competitive mode.

Fish ’n’ Flip also includes a campaign with rising difficulty from level to level. Animals gain special abilities that make play easier while adding complexity, while additional animals make groups harder to form. Later, garbage cards can disrupt groups or prevent animals from using their special abilities.