Pairs
& Perils

Pairs & Perils is a brain game like Pelmanism where you memorise the location of cards on the table, but here the matching pairs trigger attacks in your dungeon adventure. Play involves memorising a grid of cards as you go into the dungeon, then matching your heroes with their weapons to attack enemies and avoid traps. It stands out for the unusual way to defeat enemies, where observation and memorisation are key.

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It's a dungeon-exploring game with a card-matching twist. You pick a hero for each run, who has different abilities - like being able to peek at cards before choosing. Each battle you are briefly shown the colour-coded cards you need to match before they are turned over. You must then pick matching weapon and hero cards to attack. But pick the wrong card and enemies can attack.

After each battle, you can purchase new relics and special cards that trigger more damage under particular conditions. In this way, you can combine different special cards with your hero to match your approach to the game. You work through the different battles to get to the last room where a ruthless boss is waiting for you.

The result is a game that's an approachable way into dungeon adventures. It also takes the popular children's card-matching game and puts it to work to win monster battles.

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Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked Pairs & Perils 4 weeks ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 3 weeks ago.