Hide 'N Cheek is a Family Game of Chipmunk Shenanigans

Don your chipmunk masks and hunt down acorns to stuff into your cheeks to prepare for winter.

Published by Big G Creative, Hide 'N Cheek is a family game featuring an undeniably unique board game component: chipmunk masks with pouches for storing your game-winning acorns.

Gameplay

Each player takes a chipmunk mask and puts it on their face. These each have a little pouch on both sides to hold acorns in. Each player also takes one green bad acorn.

On your turn you take three red acorns and, while the other players look away or close their eyes, place them in any distribution underneath the four log cups. You can put them all under the same one, or spread them out in any way you choose. You then mix up the logs.

Next, the other players take turns choosing one log cup each to look under. If there are any acorns in them, they place the acorns in their mask pouches. After a player has looked under her log, the cup is then placed back in the center of the table for when the next player chooses. If there are any acorns left once everyone else has chosen a log, you get to claim a log, too. It is now the next player’s turn. This continues until all the red acorns have been claimed by players.

Once per game, each player can use their bad acorn on their turn. When you do, you hide it under a log cup, and do not hide any good acorns. Players again take turns looking under the logs. The player who finds the bad acorn must give three of his good acorns to the player who hid the bad one. If the player who hid the bad acorn is the one who finds it, he must return three of his acorns to the general supply.

The player with the most acorns at the end of the game is the winner.

Review

Hide ‘N Cheek is a game that is clearly designed with kids in mind. There’s not a great deal of strategy here. The active player can choose how to spread the acorns out, but the other players are just going off luck, and just a little bit of memory. However, this is a really silly and enjoyable kid’s game and the component design is to thank for that.

The chipmunk masks are absolutely ridiculous and abundantly delightful. They’re not uncomfortable to wear, and it’s a really clever way to keep the scores secret until the end of the game. Everyone looks amusingly absurd while wearing them and it just leads to plenty of laughter. They’re also not too difficult to adjust for different sized heads.

Hide ‘N Cheek may not have a great deal to offer adults who are playing on their own, but its absurdity makes it enjoyable when playing with younger gamers, and there’s no denying that it’s quite delightful when you manage to find a nice store of acorns.

Pros: Components really make this game, silly fun, good for kids

Cons: Not a great deal here for adults

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of this game.