Disclaimer: I received this game as a review copy.
This is a real-time simultaneous play game about... eating mushrooms! Be warned, Ii’s going to be a bit raucous and quite physical. In a nutshell, there is a deck of cards which gets passed around the group and the person holding the deck reveals a card. The cards show either one to three mushrooms on them. You might be tempted to eat them, but wait! No eating until someone turns into a bear.
Some of the cards have a bear photo-bombing the idyllic fungi. Once three bears have been revealed, the person who turned over the third one has to immediately jump up and race for a spoon. There are some wooden spoons included with the game and the recommendation is to place these in a pile some distance away. How far? Well, that depends on the speed and agility of your players. Younger players may need them in the next county, whereas older players with arthritis may prefer the sitting down version. The more sedated version has the bear player answer a question or perform a task before they can grab a spoon.
While the bear is grabbing a spoon, by whatever means, the other players frantically roll their dice (one per player) trying to get a mushroom. The dice are bright pink with five blank faces and one mushroom. If you roll a mushroom you can grab a card from the centre of the table. Once the bear returns, they gobble up all the remaining mushrooms.
Before all this happens, though, there is the turning over of cards and passing the deck. Here’s where the name of the game comes in. All players simultaneously bang their fists on the table shouting “Stomp Stomp Chomp” – one thump per word – and on the word “Chomp” each player reveals one thumb, two thumbs or no thumbs. Count up the collective thumbs and that’s how far the deck is passed around.
Some cards have a “+1” in the corner, if one of those shows up, turn over another card before going back to the table thumping chanting bit. By the time three bears are turned over there should be a tidy pile of mushroom cards in the centre. Get rolling while the bear goes running and stomping and try to chomp as much as you can. When the bear gets back, they get whatever is left.
There are nine bear cards in the deck, so there’s effectively three rounds to this game before tallying up your basket of mushrooms.
This is a fun, wild game which really lends itself to entertaining 8-year-old nephews and nieces, or for adults who want to be loud for a while. Don’t play this in a library.
What I like about this game is that it’s simple, it’s quick and it’s exciting, if a little shouty. It’s not at all cerebral, so if you play lots of heavy, thinky games, this could be a welcome breath of fresh air. On a scale of one to Aristotle, this is going to tend towards the low end. I love the colourful box and cards, the pink dice and wooden spoons.
Give it a go, especially if you know someone younger than 10 to play it with.
