Marsh Hallow: a Flip and Write Game Review
- Bert
- Sep 4
- 4 min read
Your family has not been answering your calls. Finally your sister sends a message to explain that they have all joined a cult. Of course you and your family are personified marshmallows. But now the race is on to rescue your family before the ritual completes and they set themselves on fire. This is the setting for Marsh Hallow a flip and write game that will have players racing to rescue their marshmallow families by using polyominos to navigate through the Caddo Lake Campground.
Setup
The first things you will notice when opening this box is the art. The art is amazing and drives the theme. This flip and write is very theme forward if you could not tell already. inside the box there is a deck of transparent cards a pad of maps and a pad of tracking sheets. The setup couldn't be easier. Each player gets a sheet from both pads then draws 3 cards on these three cards they will find a small icon of one of the Marshmallow (Marshies, Mallowites, Smorians??) people. These are the players 3 family members that they will be rescuing.
Players will circle all three members on their map. The other two cards get returned to the deck and then shuffled back in. 17 cards are taken off the deck and placed upside down in the center of the table this is the movement deck for the rest of the game. Now players are ready to play the game. Wait there were pencils in the box I suppose those should have been passed out sometime before players had to start writing.
...Marshmallow (Marshies, Mallowites, Smorians??) people.
Game Play
On the first turn the players all use the card they kept from the setup. They will rescue their first family member by shading in the shape on their card. The shapes can be used in any orientation, mirrored or reflected. This is where the beauty of the transparent cards comes in. They are a tool to help players visualize where the shapes will fit for the polyominoly impaired (I feel like I am breaking ground in new terms in this article). The game is 18 turns long ( you knew that already cause you did the math). Every other turn players will reveal a card and use that as the next shape to fill in on their board.
The board is full of icons and interacting with them (covering them with a shape) can help you or sometimes hinder you. When a player lays a new shape on the board it must be placed so that it is diagonally adjacent to a shape that is already marked on the board. New shapes cannot be drawn orthogonaly adjacent(left, right, up , down) to any other shapes on the board. What happens if a player cannot play the shape that was drawn? The player can call on the Spirit of the Hallow up to 5 times per game. Each time the Spirit of the Hallow is weaker and perhaps less helpful.
The map has Tents, Ponds, Slingshots and Monk Mallows and Free Range Cultists. Some of these will provide resources and upgrades while others will require players to use their resources. This is a resource management dungeon crawler. Players will need a lot of resources at the end of the game to win or if they manage to take out the Monk Mellows ( I am really enjoying typing this) this will make the end easier.
Speaking of the end of the game After 18 turns players should have completed rescuing three family members, taken out as many Monks as possible, saved enough water to put out the pyre and navigated to the pyre. Depending on the score of the cult determines how high of a score a player needs to win. The cult scores points for having monks on the board every round.
Thoughts
This game has a lot of replay value from the variable difficulty and setup to not using all the cards every game, no two games will be alike. The game is heavily themed and it makes me want to keep coming back for more. The art is awesome and there is a comic book in the beginning of the rule book featuring the art of Kelley Reece. Kervin Quelia's attention to detail and game-play comes through in this design. Everything in the game is there for a reason and make the game stronger. This is a must buy for me.
I highly recommend Signing up for the crowdfunding for Marsh Hallow. It is due kick off this September. For the price point there isn't another game that is packed with as much replay and great art. This is a great game for a casual game night with players of any skill level. The theme of Marsh Hallow will draw you in to play a great flip and write game.
Players: 1-4
Year Published: 2025
Recommended Ages: 13+
Time to Play: 60-90 minutes
Bert's Tabletop games was provided a prototype copy of the game for the review by For Why Games. The final product may vary from what is pictured here.
It's fascinating how Marsh Hallow manages to be so theme-forward, especially for a flip and write game. Many in the genre lean into abstract mechanics, so seeing such a strong narrative about rescuing marshmallow family members from a cult is a refreshing take that truly elevates the experience beyond just marking boxes. This focus on a quirky theme makes me wonder how it influences the social dynamics at the table. Does such an unusual premise spark conversation or shared laughs *before* the game even properly begins? For those looking to get the social energy flowing with some laughs even before the first card is drawn, exploring fun icebreaker games for groups can be a fantastic way to set the mood.