Today’s game falls into the category of art-based deduction games. It’s called
Similo is actually a family of games, all that play exactly the same but have different cards based on the sets. It was first published in 2019, from publisher Horrible Guild and designers Martino Chiacchiera, Hjalmar Hach, and Pierluca Zizzi. Several editions have come out over the years, including Fables, History, Myths, Animals, Wild Animals, Spookies, Harry Potter, Fantastic Beasts, and Lord of the Rings. My copy is Fables, so that’s what I’ll be referencing here. As I mentioned, however, they’re all pretty much the same.
A box comes with 30 cards, each with illustrations by Naïade. The cards illustrate different characters from the given genre – in my case, the game includes Little Red Riding Hood, the Big Bad Wolf, Pinocchio, Snow White, Jack, the Giant, and so on. At the start of the game, one player is assigned the role of Clue Giver. They draw one card, which is the target they are trying to get the others to guess. It is then shuffled in with 11 other cards, and the set is laid out in a 3×4 grid.
The Clue Giver draws a hand of five cards. Obviously, none of these will be the target, but the Clue Giver must choose one to be the clue for the first round. They play the card vertically to indicate that it IS like the target, or horizontally to indicate that it is NOT like the target. The Clue Giver may not give any other clues – no communication of any kind. Other players must then discuss and eliminate one card from the grid, one card that they are sure is not the target. If correct, they move on to the next round.
For example, let’s say I’m the Clue Giver and the grid is the one above. I play The Big Bad Wolf vertically, which tells you I think the target is like The Big Bad Wolf. That could be any number of things – a villain, an animal, someone with sharp teeth, a card with a blue background, and so on. One thing you’re pretty sure of, however – Cinderella is nothing like The Big Bad Wolf, so you feel safe eliminating her. And you are correct, Cinderella is NOT the target.
If you succeed in the first round, the Clue Giver plays another card as a new Clue. The players must this time eliminate two cards from the grid. So, let’s say that this time I play The Evil Queen sideways. This means the target is NOT like her. You’re not exactly sure what I’m going for – not female? Not actually a villain? Not a purple background? You decide to get rid of The Sea Witch and The Wicked Witch of the West, since they and The Evil Queen are all witches. You are again correct, neither of those are the target.
The other rounds follow the pattern. You need to eliminate three cards in the third round, and four in the fourth. For the third round, let’s say I play The Three Little Pigs vertically. You’re now thinking it’s an animal, so you get rid of Dorothy, The Tin Woodman, and The Mad Hatter (all correct). For the fourth round, I play Alice vertically. You get rid of Jack and The Giant, neither of which seem to fit. That leaves you with The Queen of Hearts and three animals. The Cheshire Cat is from Alice in Wonderland, as is The Queen of Hearts, so you take a gamble and git rid of Puss in Boots and The Fox and The Cat. Success! The target is still on the board.
If you make it all the way to the fifth round, there will be two cards left. The Clue Giver’s final clue should allow you to eliminate one final card and figure out what the target was. In this case, I might play Little Red Riding Hood sideways. You were already thinking that it’s an animal due to the presence of The Big Bad Wolf and The Three Little Pigs, and you think I’m trying to say that it’s not a female. You say that The Cheshire Cat is the target, and you are CORRECT! Congratulations!
Similo follows in the tradition of other art-based deduction games like Dixit and Mysterium, and manages to really boil the genre down into a very simple and accessible game. The basic mechanisms are super easy to understand, and the game is easy enough to be played by anyone.
The biggest point of complexity in the game is the clues. The Clue Giver only has two options for their clue – it IS like the target, or it ISN’T. The other players then have to figure out the Clue Giver’s reasoning. Is it that the character is male/female? A hero/villain? From a particular story? Wearing a particular type of clothes? Has a similarly colored background? Featured in a Disney movie? Has the same color of eyes? There are lots of possibilities.
As in Mysterium, Dixit, or even Codenames, the burden of providing a clever clue lies on the Clue Giver. But after that, you can’t communicate, and the other players have to figure out what you’re thinking. It’s very likely that they’ll overthink things (“The clue character has an E in it, and so do these eight others!”), but you can keep it as simple or complex as you want to. I wouldn’t recommend making it too difficult.
The game is quick and easy, but I don’t find myself wanting to play very much. After a few plays, it feels pretty similar, even when there are new characters in play. There’s not a lot of strategy to it, and it does often feel like you’re making desperate guesses to read the Clue Giver’s mind. Still, it’s fast, it’s extremely small and portable, and it can be fun in the right company.
Similo currently sits on my Off the Shelf rankings at #25. As I said, I like it as a good quick accessible game, but there’s not really enough meat on it for me to have it higher. And that’ll do it for today. Thanks for reading!
Boards and Bees 