Art of Solitaire - Card Games

Review by eFreeware

Most solitaire apps treat the cards as an afterthought: the same four suits, the same royal portraits, the same green felt, year after year. If you play a lot of Klondike or Spider, that sameness is fine for a while and then it isn't, and you start looking for something with a bit more personality without giving up the rules you already know.

Art of Solitaire, from Flick Games, is built around exactly that gap. It is a free card game that keeps the familiar variants but wraps them in a collection system, where the decks themselves are designed by independent artists. The studio is small and based in England, and the app was previously known as Flick Solitaire, which is worth knowing if the name looks familiar.

It has been installed more than a million times and holds a 4.0 average from 15,803 ratings, with a free price, ads and in-app purchases in the mix. The pitch is simple: solitaire as a hobby rather than a way to kill five minutes.

A card game that doubles as a small art gallery

The premise is that solitaire meets card collection. As you play, you work toward decks drawn by independent artists, and you open booster packs to fill in the ones you like. Each deck is a complete set, so the art has to work across every rank and suit rather than sitting in a single frame.

The roster runs past seventy decks, with a new one added every month. The artists come from different countries, cultures, backgrounds and identities, and they work across illustration, comics, printmaking, embroidery, photography, collage and digital art. That range matters more than it might sound: a deck built from embroidery or collage looks nothing like a deck built from digital illustration, and the variety is the point.

Collaboration decks exist too, among them sets for Regency Solitaire, Monument Valley and Inscryption. If you have played any of those, the crossover is the sort of thing that makes a collection feel worth completing rather than just filling a shelf.

How a hand actually plays out

The card handling is the part the developer has clearly spent the most time on. Rather than dragging, you flick a card and it travels across the table, catching the light and trailing particles as it goes. Zoom in on any single card and you can see the art and its texture in close detail, which is the whole reason a deck like this exists.

You can also tap an artist's profile to read more about the person behind the deck. That turns the collection into something closer to a small catalog than a set of skins, and it is the feature I would expect to matter most to players who care about the art rather than the win rate.

There are ASMR sounds layered over the flicks, which the developer presents as part of the appeal. That is a matter of taste, but it fits the overall tone: this is a game that wants you to slow down and enjoy the motion of the cards rather than rush through a hand.

Five ways to play, and no clock running

The mode list covers the classics and a couple of variations. Klondike, also called Patience, is the standard version most people picture. Spider is played with two decks and asks you to build same-suit columns. Pyramid has you clear the layout by pairing cards that add up to thirteen, while Elevens pairs cards to eleven or forms JQK.

Then there is Fastest Flicker, a global card flicking challenge where the aim is to beat the best time. It is the one mode with a competitive edge, and it sits alongside the rest rather than replacing them.

Across the main modes there are over five thousand levels, and the developer describes all of them as fully solvable. There are no timers and no pressure, which is the design choice that shapes everything else. A game that removes the clock is telling you it expects long, unhurried sessions rather than quick bursts between other things.

The app was released in June 2020 and was still being updated as of September 30, 2026, with a recent fix for a bug that could stop daily bonus coins from being awarded. That is a small patch note, but it points to a game that is still being tended rather than left alone.

What brings players back

The collection loop is the main draw. You play hands, you earn progress toward packs, you open packs, and you complete decks. The monthly release schedule keeps that loop alive: there is always one more deck on the horizon, and the collaborations give completists specific targets to chase.

The presentation reinforces the same idea, that the cards are worth looking at rather than just counting: the zoomed-in card view, the flick animation with its light and particles, and the artist profiles all point that way.

The third is the absence of pressure. With no timers and thousands of solvable levels, the game is positioned as a hobby you return to, not a challenge you conquer. The developer calls it a cozy, indie solitaire game, and the combination of art collecting, sound design and untimed play supports that description.

Free to play, with ads and purchases

The app is free to download and contains ads. It also offers in-app purchases. I would treat the free version as the starting point and decide from there.

The content rating is Everyone, and the install base is over a million.

One thing worth flagging: the app was previously called Flick Solitaire, so if you have seen that name in a store listing or a recommendation, this is the same game under a new title.

A gentle fit for collectors and casual players

Art of Solitaire is best suited to people who already like solitaire and want a reason to keep playing beyond the next hand. The deck collection, the artist profiles and the monthly releases give the game a long tail that a plain Klondike app does not have. If you enjoy illustration, printmaking, photography or collage, the decks are the main attraction, and the solitaire underneath is the vehicle for them.

The five modes mean there is enough variety to move between when one starts to feel stale, and Fastest Flicker adds a competitive option for players who want one. The absence of timers makes it a comfortable fit for winding down rather than competing, and the flick controls and sound design are aimed at people who enjoy the feel of handling cards.

It is less obviously aimed at players who want a stripped-down, no-frills card game or who dislike ads and in-app purchases in a free title. The collection system is central rather than optional, so if the art does not interest you, the appeal thins out considerably.

For anyone who wants solitaire with a bit of character and a collection to build, this is a well-presented option with a large install base behind it. I would suggest starting free, playing through a few decks, and seeing whether the collecting loop holds your attention before spending anything.

What's new in version 3.02.18

Fixed a bug that could case daily bonus coins to not be rewarded