Game Reviews: Mind Games, year 2005

These are Wei-Hwa Huang's personal reviews of games that might or might not have been submitted to the Mensa Mind Games event in 2005. (You'll have to go to that site to get the official list of submitted games, when they decide to post it.)

DISCLAIMER: The opinions, ratings, and reviews stated in this document and related webpages are the sole personal opinions of Wei-Hwa Huang and Wei-Hwa Huang alone. Wei-Hwa Huang does not speak for the more than 200 participants on the Mensa Mind Games selection panel. This is not an official site of Mensa Mind Games or Mensa Select, although the statements on which games are winners of Mensa Select are factually correct. Mensa Mind Games and Mensa Select are registered trademarks of American Mensa.

If you have any questions or concerns about my reviews and comments, please feel free to mail me.

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Party Games: Word-based

Eye to Eye (6;7;4)

his & hers (4;3;2)

Last Word (7;8;7)

Wavelength (5;6;5)
Party Games: Artistic skill

Famous People (3;3;4)

Things in a Box (3;5;2)

Why Did the Chicken...? (4;5;2)
Quiz Games

Trailblazer (3;2;3)
"Roll Dice And Move" Games

HotFlash! The Menopause Game (2;2;1)

StockRush: a Week on Wall Street (5;6;7)

StakXchange (1;2;5)
Number and Math Games
Word and Language Games

Abet (8;7;5)

In a Pickle (6;6;6)

I Spy: In Common (1;1;2)

Letterflip (6;5;4)

Lexogon (8;7;7)

Sentence Says (3;2;2)
Reflex and Reaction Games

Jurassic Jumble (6;5;5)

Perpetual Commotion (9;8;6)

Pounce (4;7;4)

Snorta! (4;6;7)
Strategy Card Games

*Loot (7;7;7)

Wacky Water (2;3;1)

Turn the Tide (10;9;9)
Family Strategy ("German") Games

The Motley Fool's Buy Low Sell High Game (8;8;9)

*Niagara (7;7;8)

Tutankhamen (8;8;10)
Abstract Strategy Games -- Pure Abstract

Astroplane (5;4;3)

*Da Vinci's Challenge (7;7;8)

Infinifield (5;4;3)

Isolate (4;3;6)

Tac of War (7;6;4)

ZigZag (7;5;7)
Abstract Strategy Games -- Luck or Hidden Information

Boxum (3;4;2)

Chameleon (3;5;9)

Domination (7;6;6)

Easy Come, Easy Go (9;8;8)

*Ingenious (8;8;10)

Maask (5;7;8)

Roundabout (5;4;3)

Spot-A-Shot (1;1;4)

Stack Gammon (6;5;6)

Trillion (7;4;10)
One Player Games

GridWorks (4;9;7)

Namitz - The Game of Think (1;1;1)

Subtrax (2;6;7)

Tipover (3;8;9)

Touchdown (2;4;6)
Games With Original Themes

Faces (8;7;9)

Mr. Bigshot (3;3;5)

*Zendo (10;9;10)

Perpetual Commotion

Replay Value (1-10): 9
Fun Factor (1-10): 8
Worth Buying (1-10): 6

Hrm. Well, I see no reason to explain the rules to what is basically a variation on a classic game, so go and read the rules to Nerts first. Done? Okay, here's how Perpertual Commotion is different:

You can't play on the Work piles, but you get 5 of them.
The rules on "getting stuck" are a bit different.
After one round, there is a roll of an 8-sided die that can give (rather arbitrary) bonus points.
The Aces and Kings have been replaced with "START" and "STOP" cards, and are suitless.
The cards have a giant number in the center instead of pips. The 6s are underlined to disambuguate them, but strangely enough the 9s are not and the 7s are. If you get this game, the first thing you should to do is to take a magic marker and underline the 9s.
There's a bunch of niggly rules in there to make the game more fair, such as the seance-like starting position where each deck is being held by two players.

Not sure what to say in the commentary portion here. It's a pretty fun game and has been since I first learned it ten years ago. Some of the changes they've made (such as the START cards) are reasonable, some of them (such as the die) seem pointless. The cards are, unfortunately, rather flimsy and won't stand up to the abuse they'll get if you actually play the game. On the other hand, how often are you going to get 6 players together to play this anyway? Fun, but a true game collector has too many decks of cards lying around the house anyway.

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By Wei-Hwa Huang