Flick ’em Up! Dead of Winter Review – A Chibi Apocalypse That’s Too Much Work

Flick ’em Up! Dead of Winter is the cinematic mashup between Pretzel Games’ Flick ’em Up and Plaid Hat Games’ Dead of Winter. Within this review, we’re going to compare this game to the original Dead of Winter and see if it’s a worthwhile successor or a mindless cash grab.

On the surface, it’s a combination that shouldn’t work. A strategic semi-cooperative game based on the zombie apocalypse, and a family-friendly dexterity game that brings Westerns to your tabletop.

Yet somehow, Flick ’em Up! Dead of Winter nails the aesthetics of both games by making everything chibi. Cute chibi zombies – who will adorably eat your brains – as well as characters you know and love from Dead of Winter. However, this cuteness, like the rest of the game, fails to capture the paranoia and desperation of Dead of Winter.

And that’s OK.

Because this is a family game, not drowning in doom and gloom, opens the door for younger players and those who faint at the sight of blood.

Theme aside, Flick ’em Up! Dead of Winter is a scenario-based dexterity game where you’ll be moving characters and shooting enemies by flicking plastic tokens. As you do, you’ll be chased by plastic zombies who want to eat you like a human-sized hamburger.

They’re not your only concern though, as this is a scenario-based game. While 5 scenarios are you vs zombies, the other 5 scenarios introduce team vs team vs zombies. I guess depending on your friends’ penchant for eating brains – this still could be reduced to you vs zombies.

Sounds and zombies

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Flick ’em Up! Dead of Winter is the zombie tower. This huge hulking tower sits above the town, ready to spew zombies in your direction.

Like the tower from The Loop, it acts by adding a chance aspect to the game. Where you’ll know the direction the zombies will go, but have no idea about the accuracy. Often you’ll take chances thinking: surely these zombies won’t hit me. But sure enough, there’s a random bounce and suddenly your character is on life support. Ironically, this erratic zombie movement makes them feel alive, moving of their own accord.

However, this ‘wonderful feeling’ of being surrounded by life-like flesh-eating monsters comes at a cost. Setting up the zombie tower after every turn is laborious, and quickly becomes work. If this mechanic was used sparingly, I would be heaping nothing but praise upon it.

Another great mechanic within Flick ’em Up! Dead of Winter is the different weapon actions. While you’re always flicking, your accuracy and how you flick changes with each weapon. For instance, the shotgun allows you to fire four pellets at once. Whereas with the sniper rifle, you shoot a larger pellet and get a cardboard aimer.

This variety adds flavour to your attacks, keeps the game fresh, and adds a bit of strategy. Each weapon is also broken into two sound categories: red, and yellow. Either way, you’ll get zombies headed towards you, but using red abilities will attract a lot more.

This isn’t exactly the pinnacle of strategic thought but when combined with the randomness of the zombie tower. It will give you a reason to pause and think about your move.

Is it a good mash up?

As a fan of Dead of Winter, one of the most interesting mechanics was the crossroads cards. These cards are picked up by someone other than the current player and essentially have a condition on them based on the player’s action. For instance, if the player coughs on their turn, then place down two infection markers on their character, and from now on that character must wear a mask.

These cards created much of the fun in Dead of Winter as they added trepidation to every turn within the game. It was as much fun for the person taking the turn, as it was for the person reading and policing the crossroads card.

Flick ’em Up! Dead of Winter dropped the ball on its implementation of these cards. Reducing them to standard event cards, activating when a player picks up a crossroad token.

This game also bungled the implementation of the roles – another of the primary mechanics of Dead of Winter. Whereas in Dead of Winter, everyone gets a role and there’s a 90% chance that someone is a traitor hoping for the colony to not survive. Roles in this game aren’t introduced until the second last scenario and are only introduced in the competitive mode.

This seems like a huge missed opportunity, given that the two game modes are wildly different both in how they play, and the number of people involved.

The juice ain’t worth the squeeze

Like most flicking dexterity games, Flick ’em Up! Dead of Winter brings a lot of energy to the board game table. It’s not a game you can sit down and play, and instead, everyone will be standing, and moving around to line up shots.

This game thrives in a party or convention atmosphere – and sure a drink or two would help.

Also like most flicking dexterity games, it can create highlights and lowlights. Where someone pulls off the perfect shot, or the tension falls on a single person to save the party. Or someone misfires a shot and ploughs into a pack of zombies.

Unfortunately, the setup stopped Flick ’em Up! Dead of Winter from hitting my table more often. It’s not a game you can play back-to-back on a weeknight purely because the setup and teardown are too long.

Meanwhile, the bookkeeping and the odd amount of players it requires, really make it a challenge to enjoy. Therefore, even though I had fun while I was playing it, the juice ain’t worth the squeeze. Especially, when you are competing with Catacombs Conquest or Crash Octopus that have the same or similar gameplay without these pitfalls.