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Similo is a cooperative card game that takes a simple idea and executes it perfectly. Each game consists of a deck of character cards, all based around a theme specific to the version you’re playing. Each character card displays the name, a fantastic portrait and also some details of the character that might be useful if players aren’t completely familiar with them. In this latest version, characters from the wizarding world of Harry Potter take the focus.
What Is Similo?
Before playing, a player is selected to be the clue giver. This player shuffles the deck, draws a card and examines it; This is the secret card for the game. They proceed to draw eleven more cards to form a small deck, shuffle that deck and layout the twelve cards in a grid. Everyone else will work together to work out which of the cards is the secret card by interpreting clues and ruling out other characters.
The clue giver takes the remaining cards and draws a hand of five. They choose one card from their hand to play each round, upright to signify the secret character is similar to the clue given, sideways to signify the secret character is not similar. The clue giver then draws back up to five.
The rest of the players now need to take this information and eliminate a number of characters from the game depending on the round. 1 card in round 1, 2 in round 2, 3 in round three and 4 in round four. This leaves the players with two characters in round five in which they have to eliminate just one. If the group manages to get to the end of round 5 with the secret character still in play, they win, if at any point the group eliminates the secret card, everyone loses.
So, now you have to consider… Is Albus Dumbledore similar to Dobby? Are Death Eaters similar to The Dursleys? Is Luna Lovegood similar to Minerva McGonagall? That’s up to you to decide.
Similo: Harry Potter
Similo: Harry Potter popped up on my radar and it was an instant buy. Not only do I enjoy the books and films, but I also have friends that are deeper into Pottermore than is probably healthy. I knew I could definitely get them to play this and following on they’d probably be willing to give the other sets a go.
So, once it arrived, I rushed to get it to the table, excited to see how people made connections between characters we’re so fond of, especially as this new set contains a bumper size deck of 39 cards. We played a few games with the Harry Potter set on its own and sure enough, it plays just as well as any of the other sets, common links were based on houses, student’s vs teachers, goodies vs baddies, whether they had died or not and not surprisingly whether they were a Weasley.
The card art from Xavier “Naïade” Durin really is fantastic and probably fits this set better than all the others while still unifying this new set with all the others. Each character is expertly represented with the card backgrounds fitting nicely into their backstory, ideals or their appearance in the series. Personally, my favourite card is the divination professor, Sybill Trelawney. The shocked look on her face and the teacups in the background is just perfect.
I also took along my copy of the Fables and Spookies versions of the game as with all other versions of Similo, a variant exists where two different themed decks are used in combination and I thought they would work quite well with the magical people throughout the Harry Potter stories. So, after playing a few games with just the Harry Potter characters, it was time to add another deck.
In the official 2 deck variant, you take any pair of Similo decks and you use one for the 12 characters to guess from, and the other is used as the clue cards, it starts to get really interesting when you have to ask yourself, “Is He Who Must Not Be Named similar to Frankenstein’s Monster?”.
Some of these combinations work better than others obviously, so choosing the right decks to combine is very important. In the end, we chose to try spookies to fit with the vibe and this is where the real fun began.
Playing with the two decks does add length to the game, the clue giver will almost certainly take longer to pick their card but working out what they are trying to convey comes like a bolt out of the blue. One game we were really struggling with had taken some real punts with our eliminations when the clue giver drew his card for round 4, her face lit up and she immediately played the banshee, the secret card was similar.
Our eyes quickly scanned the remaining six cards and we spotted it almost in unison, Moaning Myrtle! Needless to say we won that game.
All in all, Similo: Harry Potter is more of the same, more fun, more characters, more possible combinations and with the appeal of the brand, I really think it’ll introduce more people to the game, and that’s only a good thing for more sets in the future.
Final thoughts
Similo: Harry Potter, along with all other versions is one of those games that runs so quickly and plays so easily that you’ll often find yourself playing several games in a row, rotating around who’s giving the clues and who’s trying to work out exactly why they think Snape is similar to Griphook.
I will admit, the game does focus on the sole mechanic of trying to think like your friends, some people find this a lot easier than others and you can also fall into a kind of pattern. Our first clue often refers to the gender of the character, then whether they are morally good or bad.
The random hand helps deter this and when combined with other packs, you can prevent this even further. As mentioned previously, you could play Myths with Wild Animals, and while this can be difficult, it can also lead to some brilliant gaming moments such as using the three little pigs (from fables) as a clue for the Moirai (from myths) because there are three of each.
The game is small enough to fit in a moderately sized pocket, quick to set up, simple to teach plays with as few as two players, and one of the biggest draws is that each pack is inexpensive. The system works well with a wide range of themes and I wouldn’t be surprised if following the Harry Potter set, we get more licensed versions.
Marvel or DC, Star Wars or Star Trek, Lord of the Rings or Looney Tunes, the options seem endless and even with the current range of packs available, there’s something for everyone. I highly recommend at least one set should live in everyone’s game collections as it’s such a versatile game, and if you’re a fan of Harry Potter, why not this one?
