CLKY Studios’ fast-paced memory puzzle game FLIP is a genuinely delightful surprise, delivering a clever subversion of a familiar genre.
At its core, it takes a concept everyone knows, from nursery or primary school. Memorising and matching cards.
But then turns it into a high-stakes race against the clock. It is sleek, addictive, and incredibly satisfying when you get into a flow state, even if its pacing occasionally trips over its own feet.
Patterns, Pressure, and Pure Flow
The fundamental hook of FLIP is elegant in its simplicity.
You aren’t expected to possess a photographic memory to clear a board, but you do need to rapidly map out patterns and make snap decisions.
Mistakes do not just break your streak, they actively shave precious seconds off your countdown timer.
The pressure in FLIP can really mount-up quite quickly. You start out doing some nice colour matching, only to find out you’re on a timer and the matches have increased.
When everything clicks, FLIP feels brilliant. Finding a rhythm, clearing a grid with seconds to spare, and watching your multiplier climb delivers an immediate, dopamine-heavy rush.
The presentation is clean, the visual feedback is sharp, and the core mechanics feel polished to a mirror shine. Feeling like Tetris Effect in how it delivers on-screen. That’s high-praise, indeed.
Futuristic yet retro and simple. The aesthetic is delightful in FLIP.
The Difficulty Rollercoaster
Where FLIP stumbles slightly is in how it handles its milestone challenges.
Every five levels, the game throws a unique boss encounter at you to break up the standard memory grids. It’s a great idea, for sure.
In theory, shifting the rules keeps the experience fresh. In practice, these bosses drop you into entirely new mechanics with practically zero explanation, leaving you to decipher complex rule changes while a timer aggressively ticks down in the background.
This design choice fuels a rather odd difficulty curve. You will coast through a series of wonderfully balanced, escalating stages. Only to slam face-first into a brick wall of a boss fight while trying to figure out what the game actually wants you to do.
Once you finally overcome the encounter, the difficulty drops right back down, resetting the tension before slowly ramping up to the next sudden ambush.
Perhaps this is by design. FLIP is luring you into a false sense of security, before it slaps you about and tells you to do one. You come back for more, and ultimately get past it. But it could easily be enough to turn you away quite quickly.
Accessibility and portability
I want to take a moment to make special mention to the accessibility of a game based on matching colours. As someone that’s colourblind, the core concept made me shudder when presented to me.
FLIP is colour-matching, but it’s not mean. Each card is labelled with the colour name, too, and each colour has its own shape icon on the cards. There’s even a black and white mode, which removes the potential confusion, entirely. It’s thoughtful and meaningful. It’s made my experience of the game, a dream.
Add to that, the fact that it plays wonderfully on the Steam Deck out of the box, and you have a portable challenge with you wherever you want it.
Overall
Despite the erratic difficulty spikes and the trial-by-fire boss introductions, FLIP remains a gem of an indie title.
The core gameplay loop is far too compelling for a few jarring pacing bumps to ruin the fun.
If you enjoy puzzle games that test your reflexes as much as your memory, FLIP is well worth adding to your library.
Just remember, that you might need a bit of patience to get through it as that difficulty ramp can be aggravating. But don’t give up, FLIP is fun, accessible (important!) and lovely to dip in and out of whenever you have a few minutes here and there.
I look forward to more games and ideas like this from CLKY Studios, and hope that some future updates help with the difficulty curve, to give newcomers chance to stick with it. Great work.
