The Kinoko Game from Helvetiq features cute little mushroom-people cards in 6 different colors, three dice, and 12 scoring tokens in a small box big enough for 2-4 people to play in 20 minutes. In this competitive game, deduction and memory are the tools you need to win! Everyone has a secret family color with the goal of collecting a set of three mushroom cards of their color either in their own hand or in one of two card displays that are face down on the table. Although each player has three cards in their hand numbered 1, 2 and 3, they do not know what color(s) they are since they are always held face-out towards the other players. To add more intrigue, there is one “poison” color mushroom that can lose you points.
On their turn, players roll three dice that will let them swap a specific numbered card between themselves, other players, or the face-down display rows. Some dice let you peek at a face-down card on the table or swap all the cards in anyone’s hand with another person’s hand or with one of the display rows. After several swaps, players start to deduce where the different colored cards are, and when they think they know which location their three colored mushroom cards are as a set, they call the round and reveal all mushroom and family cards. If one of the sets contains all three of their colored mushroom cards, they get two points and take a 2-point token. Any other player with a set matched to their family color also gets two points. Anyone who has at least one card of the poison color in their hand loses one point. Another round starts, and at the end of any round when a player has four points, the game ends and the player with the most points wins the game!