Flix

 Down From The Attic 4: Flix.

Video review can be found here! https://youtu.be/C8KfnX66oXM

Here’s an unusual and mostly forgotten about game from 1994, Flix, by Milton Bradley. You’d be forgiven for not remembering this one, a one year release span for a game isn’t massive. But what we have here is a quick, entertaining lateral thinking and strategy game for two players.

 

The box isn’t much to look at, standard MB fare really, I’ve always found the font so indicative of the 90s though. This is a board game by principles, but just take a look at the board.

Yeah, this isn’t your regular cardboard fold out game board. 

The game board comprises of three blue segments that fit together to create a large hexagonal play space. Getting the board together is a feat in itself, the sides of each of the segments have a sliding latch. Getting two of these in place is easy enough, but getting the third in place invariably displaces the first two. I remember this being a particular pain in the backside as a kid but twenty three years later it’s no easier as an adult. You need an engineering degree to get this together! The pieces are solid and incredibly robust, they feel solid and sturdy. So, with all three clips together, you give the board this twist/push movement on all three segments and it clicks into place, voila!



The underside of the game board has small ball bearings fitted to each segment which help with rotating the board round and this will become more apparent as we play. In addition to the main board are these plastic triangle pieces that fit around the edge, they indicate the starting positions for the the balls. The rules indicate that 3 triangles of one colour to be on one side but you can mix this up if you wish to implement house rules, it changes how you view the board and adds a different element of play, rather than seeing each side as a “base” the board appears more a level playing field.

So starting the game, each player has nine balls around the perimeter of the board. You take it in turns to flick balls around the game board using these flick paddles. 

Each segment of the board is a sunken 3 sided pyramid which gives you 3 different sides to place your flick paddle before flicking…..there’s a lot of flicking flicks to that sentence!

 The aim of the game is to create a large triangle using four of your balls occupying the smaller triangles. 

You can’t use non flicked balls to create this, so flicking balls near the starting position of other sides won’t count, the starting positions don’t count as part of the triangle. 



The game mechanics are simple enough for anyone to pick up very quickly, and there’s a surprising amount of strategy and forward thinking with this game. Many times you’ll spin the board round to see that your opponent is one flick away from winning and you can only hope you can land your ball in the triangle to stop that from happening! There’s a certain cleverness to this, it’s satisfying to set up a scenario where there’s no win for your opponent, they can block one big triangle, but are unable to stop you winning with another.

 

Sometimes you’re a little enthusiastic with your flick and your ball will go off the board or land in a triangle that’s already occupied, all what happens here is you return the ball to where it was and the players turn ends. It can take a few attempts to get a feel of how strong a flick you need to execute, some times you’ll only want your ball to land the next triangle ahead, you might want it to get to the other side of the board. There’s a certain element of dexterity to this game. Of course, with certain flicks, ball will bounce off the divide between triangles or even bounce right out of the triangle you aimed for, there’s been times where a flukey shot like this can really change how a game plays out. 



Flix is a very simple game at it’s heart, and sometimes some of the best games are the simplest. I see this game as a sort of horizontal Connect Four only with a dexterity and luck thrown in for good measure. Getting accustomed to how hard a flick should be takes a bit of practice, but most new players are quick to pick up the mechanics and rules. Game usually last maybe up to 5 minutes and I’ve never played just a single game of this, most players want to play a number of rounds because this is the sort of game that you instantly feel you can do better next time around. Flix is no longer being produced by MB games but copies aren’t so difficult to come by on ebay and on other second hand sites. This game is a fun addition to any collection and young children and adults can enjoy this, it’s quick to learn the rules, quick to play, just fiddly to put together!