Every sugaring season ends with a party, and in the hollow it always ends up crammed into the shack kitchen. Kitchen Party Pairs deals that crowd out as cards. Each card back carries the brass sugarmaker’s seal; turn one over and you might find Maude the badger, Cobb the mole, Coral the flamingo with her headphones, Monty the butler cat, or a keepsake like a chickadee, snowshoes or a little steam whistle.
Flip two cards. If they match, they stay face up; if not, they turn back over and it is your memory that has to keep track. There are six levels, starting with a gentle 3x4 table and growing through 4x4, 4x5, 5x4 and 4x6 to the big 6x6, where all eighteen faces appear. A clock and a move counter run as you play, and fewer moves mean more stars.
How to play Kitchen Party Pairs
- Choose a level from the menu; the first one is open, and each later level opens once you clear the one before it.
- Flip any card to see who is underneath, then flip a second card to look for its match.
- Matching pairs stay face up; mismatched cards turn back over after a moment, so note where they were.
- Keep going until every pair on the table is found and the level clears with a shower of stars.
- Replay any cleared level to improve your star rating by finishing in fewer moves.
Kitchen Party Pairs controls
Getting better at Kitchen Party Pairs
- Work across the table in rows at the start, so the cards you have seen stay in an order you can recall.
- Say the guests’ names in your head as they appear; ‘Gus, top left’ sticks better than a picture alone.
- When you flip a card you have seen the twin of, go straight for the match before exploring anything new.
- On the big tables, clear one corner fully before moving on; it shrinks the area you need to remember.
- Do not rush the second flip; a short pause to think costs nothing, while a careless move costs a star.
Eighteen faces from all over the map
The guest list at a hollow kitchen party is wonderfully mixed. There is Wren the otter in her waxed waistcoat, Maude the night-keeping badger, Cobb the bespectacled mole, Nell the little sugar glider in her scarf, Honey the bumblebee beekeeper, Gus the marmot ski patroller, Sprocket the mint-green robot, Rufus the raccoon ringmaster, Mateo the capybara explorer, Coral the flamingo DJ, Barnaby the beaver chocolatier and Monty the butler cat.
On the larger tables, six sugar bush keepsakes join them: the chickadee, the grey jay, a snowshoe hare, a pair of snowshoes, a brass hand lamp and the steam whistle. Animal faces are easy to tell apart at a glance, while the keepsakes look a little more alike, which gives the bigger levels a gentle extra challenge. Stars are saved level by level, so polishing an old score later is easy.
Stars, clocks and the art of the tidy table
Each level shows your move count, the number of pairs found, a running clock and your points. Above the table sits the move target for the full three stars, so you always know what tidy play looks like on that grid. Clearing any level earns at least one star and opens the next one, which means nobody gets stuck behind a level they find tough.
Families often find a nice rhythm here: a child plays the 3x4 table, an adult takes the 6x6, and everyone compares stars at the end.
Questions about Kitchen Party Pairs
Six. They grow from a 3x4 table of six pairs to a 6x6 table of eighteen pairs, and each one opens after you clear the level before it.
By finishing in few moves. The target for three stars is shown above the table while you play, and any finish earns at least one star.
Very much so. The first table is small, the characters are friendly and bright, and there is no penalty for taking your time over each flip.
