Description

In ?????????? (Hedgehog's Dilemma), you and your fellow players are hedgehog breeders who are trying to encourage the little critters to get closer to one another on a cold day, perhaps to form a hedgehog couple if all goes well, so they need to be close enough to meet but not too close.

User summary:
The deck has cards numbered 1 to 4. Players are dealt six cards to their hand and a number of cards are laid face-up matching the number of players. Everyone chooses a card from their hand and reveals it. Cards that match up go to the player, everything else is discarded. Repeat this until the players' hands are empty, then score. Total up the whole of the cards you collected, the player with the highest total wins a token. Shuffle the whole deck over, play another round. The game ends when the fifth token is given out, the most tokens wins.

Matching cards simply means matching the number on the card, so if the table shows 1,3,3,4 and you're the only one to lay a 4, you get both 4s. But if more than one player lays a 4, you all get nothing. If two players each laid a 3, they'd each get a 3 from the table. If one player laid a 3, they'd only get one 3.

But if a 1 is matched in a turn, then the highest value table card is discarded, and so any matches are also lost. This brings in double-think, what are they other players likely to do? Do you go for the 4, or try a safer 3? What looks like a simple game becomes more cunning and watching what cards have already been played matters.

The card art is lovely, showing a variety of spiny creatures, sea urchins, lizards, turtles, porcupines. The cards are quite thin but the game is well made.