Designed by: Chris Handy
FLY is one of a series of games (Pack o’ Games) that come in tiny packets. Many are more conventional, but FLY is an unusual dexterity game, where you collect sets of flies – by dropping a swatter card onto them.
The play area is a series of cards (in three rows) representing a tablecloth, somewhat unfortunately invaded by flies. On your turn, you simply drop a swatter card anywhere onto the ‘table’ from a minimum particular height (twice the height of the cards: you can use the box with a card tucked in it as a guide) and claim any fly cards as long as you completely cover the fly on it. The tablecloth ‘shuffles over’ to fill the empty spaces, and cards in the lower rows are used to fill up the top ones – players keep going until all the fly cards have been claimed.
That’s the game! Except to say, of course, not entirely. What makes FLY less meaningless than it sounds is the fact that flies only score points when gathered in sets: each fly has a colour and a symbol, and needs to be part of a set of at least three flies to be worth a point. Flies can only be part of one set, as well: so my three red flies and four diamond flies would be worth seven points (1 point per fly) but my remaining two yellow flies and one triangle fly are worth nothing. This scoring system gives players a sliver of tactical choice to make through the game: expand their own set? Deprive someone else? Ideally, you want to do both, as the player with the most points wins.
Nothing direct, only the nabbing of flies that others might want.
Very low - turns are fast, and the game is brief.
Turns require not so much brain-burning as a bit of good aim and a bit of luck. The only part of the game very young players might struggle with is the scoring system.
The mere dropping of cards ensures some elements of randomness, along with the set-up. Whether that's enough to feel worth repeat visits is down the individuals doing the dropping!
2-4
Players
6+
Years
5-15
Mins
Sam says
FLY can be sometimes funny, and sometimes forgivably frustrating: often both at the same time! I don't think it's the best dexterity game I've played - not by a long stretch - because the card-dropping feels closer to random than something you'd play enough to develop a technique for (though I'm sure it could be done) but it's a diverting enough ten minutes that comes in an absolutely tiny packet - a good one for the pub, perhaps, or the picnic table.