Similo Wild Animals, Game of the Month – December 2021
2021 was a year of highs and lows! No one wants to dwell on the downs more than the ups though so I will fill my glass half-full and remember some of the highlights: Board Game meet-ups, UKGE, 866 plays of 256 different board games. 70 posts on this website attracting 36,144 unique visitors. Some amazing memories and achievements last year. To round off the year I have to crown my game of the month for December 2021.
I must confess ten days into the month I thought Exit: The Advent Calendar had presented itself as the winner of the accolade With three boys ‘helping’ me to complete it, here I am in January with some doors still to open and riddles to solve! We are thoroughly enjoying it and it would’ve been the game of the month had Santa not popped a copy of Similo Wild Animals into George’s stocking. You have to give Father Christmas credit – he sure does know what he’s doing!
© boardgamereview.co.uk
Similo Wild Animals is one of a few different skins of the same co-operative game. One player is the clue giver, they draw a card from the deck at random and this is the card they must get the other players to guess. It is mixed up with eleven other cards from the deck, all of which are placed in a 4 x 3 grid. The clue giver then draws 5 cards for their hand. In silence, they must play one of these five cards to communicate that it is similar or different to the animal they are trying to get guessed. So for example, they may play an Ostrich to indicate that it is a bird, but they might also play the Ostrich because it has a long neck and so too does a Giraffe. The links, known only by the clue giver, can be anything: colour, habitat, diet, or even a similarity in the shape of their eyes or nose.
The other players then need to remove one card from the grid that they believe is not the animal they are looking for. The game is played over five quick rounds and each round an increasing number of cards must be removed from the grid, until the final round when there is only two cards to choose between.
© boardgamereview.co.uk
I must say Similo Wild Animals is so simple, yet so clever. The artwork by Xavier Gueniffey Durin is also really cool and can link cards in ways that at first may not be as obviously apparent. It’s on the easier side of co-ops but that means the kids can play just as capably without adults. However, there is enough to it, that the adults can play without the kids too! It is already a firm family favourite in our house. That’s why in the last five days of the month, it has snatched the accolade for December!
© boardgamereview.co.uk
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Reviewer’s Note
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