One of the strengths of making puzzle games is that they can be visually and conceptually on the more simple side, and still find some success. Flip It absolutely fits that description in terms of its visuals, with a look that is absolutely primitive. As for the gameplay, it’s all about getting your little square from point A to point B, without falling off the stage or getting impaled on a spike.

The key to your success in doing this is your ability to rotate the stage itself, or to (as the name implies) flip it over. This isn’t a particularly new concept, as there have even been games that have run with gravity-defying levels and puzzles in a more action-oriented vein like the notorious VVVVVV. If you’re game though, I assume you could enjoy the mental exercise of twisting, flipping, and moving your piece around carefully to complete each level.

The problem though is that the game does itself few favors in terms of helping you to succeed. The first and most obvious problem is simply that there are no in-game instructions that I could find. Since I happened to first find the controls that would allow me to rotate the stage, I actually initially thought that was meant to be the only means of movement, getting me stuck pretty early since I didn’t know I could also simply move back and forth. Even once I figured this out though it made for pretty awkward controls, moving between the analog stick and the D-Pad. Another issue, especially when the stage was oriented upside down, was that I’d get confused whether I was supposed to be rotating relative to being upside down or as if I were right side up. 

My irritants may have been small things, but given the game’s simplicity they also quickly helped to burn through what little patience I had for it. In the end, I’m just not sure there’s enough here to warrant curiosity. If nothing else, I’d argue that if you like this sort of play for the complexity there are more action-oriented and interesting options out there, making this bare bones basic experience a pretty tough sell.