On the Table – Flip 7 and Wonky make a strong play for party game night

While I love an intense strategy game that lasts for hours, the appeal of a quick party game to get a game night really rolling is undeniable. The OP Games has made this one of its key focuses; many of its best-selling games are affordable, easy to learn and a lot of fun to play. We got to try out two of their most recent releases, Flip 7 and Wonky.

Flip 7 is the one that everybody is talking about, though. Freshly nominated for Spiel des Jahres 2025, the most prestigious global board game award in the industry, it offers casino flair at the kitchen table for large player groups. Not since Uno has a card game captivated in this way; it’s an incredibly simple concept that goes a long way, taking the ‘push your luck’ mechanic to the extreme.

The idea is straightforward; from a deck of numbered cards, blindly flip as many as you can without getting a double-up to net the points. If you do get a duplicate card dealt to you, your turn immediately ends, so you need to try and build up your points in each round without busting. The first player to get to 200 points wins, and you also get bonus points for flipping seven different value cards on your turn.

Each card has as many copies as its value; there’s a single 1-value card, two 2-value cards, and so on. That means that receiving a 12-card early in your turn makes it incredibly risky to play on; there are eleven other versions of that card just waiting to knock you out. Additionally, bonus-point cards are in the mix, and a few ability cards too; Second Chance means you’re able to get a duplicate on your turn and keep playing, Freeze forces another player to stop where they are and flip no more, while Flip Three can be dastardly, forcing another player to take three cards in a row.

For such a tidy card game, it’s also a visual stunner; not only is each numbered card a different colour, making for easy readability, but the Art Deco style of them makes things just a little bit fancy. Bonus point cards and abilities stand out comparatively, and the borders of each card all have matching decorations so that you can connect them up in a sort of collage that is super satisfying. It keeps the game moving fast while looking lovely, a testament to its strong design.

Flip 7’s only downside is that it, ultimately, is a game based purely on luck, with no room (or time) for strategy. If you’re able to quickly keep track of the cards that come out of the deck before it’s reshuffled, I suppose you could take calculated risks based on the cards you receive, but in our experience, the games moved so quickly that even with four of us, it was impossible to remember. You’ll also need a willing scorer to write down each round, but there’s a handy official app for tallying points, if you need. Considering Flip 7 can be played with up to 18 players, its barrier to entry is quite low, is easy to recommend and deserves all the hype it’s getting.

Next up from The OP Games is Wonky: The Unstable Party Game, which combines the stackable fun of Jenga with the card game chaos of UNO. In Wonky, you have to try and get rid of your cards by stacking blocks on top of each other, but the obvious twist here is that the cubes themselves are weird shapes that are not easily stackable. There are three small, three medium, and three large-sized blocks, with half their surfaces curved.

Cards require you to stack specific blocks, and you’ll draw more if you don’t have any that work, or if you are the one to topple over the stack. It’s a neat combination of ideas that, again, makes Wonky incredibly easy to teach. Because each stack is starting from scratch, it also has practically zero setup, apart from shuffling a deck of cards. And as expected, the fun really comes from trying to make your opponent’s turns as difficult as possible, by creating a tower that is, well, wonky, and difficult to progress from. Other cards (like a Reverse) add to the dastardly energy; some of the funnier moments playing were when one player set up the next for a serious failure, only for a Reverse to throw it right back at them, causing their own demise.

I’m usually dubious when it comes to interactive components like stacks of blocks on game nights, but Wonky is colourful and charming enough that it works. Again, teachable in minutes, it’s a modern take on some classics, offering a good time for players of all ages and a potentially high player count. It’s lighthearted fun, but probably built for the less serious tabletop folks in mind (unlike Flip 7, which I’d say is awesome for everybody).

Overall, we have a surefire winner in Flip 7, and Wonky is a decent enough riff on the Jenga/UNO combo that it works for some fast entertainment. The OP Games ethos is about making memories with your friends and family, forming connections with one another and building on their reputation for quality products, and from my experience with these two games, that rings true.

While both would hold a place in many tabletop collections, Flip 7 is an absolute must-have, a delightful card game that would work well for any audience. While there are many push-your-luck games available, this is one that could stand the test of time.

Flip 7 and Wonky are available now in all good board game stores. Thanks to The Op Games for providing copies of each for this review.