Flap Flap Duck is a new limited communication board game by RES Design, who previously did Insured. Flap your way back home in this 2 to 5 player operation through an obstacle-laden field to get Ducky back to its nest.
Of course, the journey won’t be as simple as point A to B. Each player plays as one of Ducky’s neurons, meaning that each one of you dictates just one movement action ranging from flapping up, ducking down, or simply moving forward. The catch? Players can’t communicate with each other, except under very specific, ducky circumstances.
The limited communication aspect harkens back to games like The Mind, where players are unable to exchange any information regarding the cards. It’s a little more forgiving in Flap Flap Duck, as players have a Clue card that allows them to provide a hint to what direction they are going.
Clue cards range from having the ability to only quack to your friends, or to physically act out the clue like in a game of charades. Amp up the difficulty even more if you want, by removing all communication and relying purely on guesswork and affinity with each other.
The nature of Flap Flap Duck makes it an immensely family-friendly game. The gameplay is simple and limited in scope and the difficulty can be easily ramped up with arbitrary, made-up rules. That very nature also allows it to perhaps excel as a drinking game, or an ice-breaking game. It’s quick, fun, and simple, allowing for players of all ages (and states of drunkenness) to participate and enjoy themselves.
That said, the game has a limited amount of maps, meaning that it doesn’t offer endless replayability. The gameplay isn’t very deep or strategic either and is mostly reliant on unspoken communication between the players, so game enthusiasts with a preference for role-playing or immersion might not find anything to their liking here.
In the end, Flap Flap Duck is a well-designed game with tightly woven gameplay, but there’s really not much else to it.