Game Reviews: Mind Games, year 2006

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 2006. (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

Baffle Gab (6;5;3)

Bonkers (6;6;4)

The Invention Game (6;6;7)

JabberJot (7;6;4)

Linq (6;8;6)

Nymble (6;5;4)

Questionary (8;8;5)
Party Games: Artistic skill

Portrayal (5;7;9)

Sketchword (7;7;5)
Party Games: A Variety of Tasks

Eve's Quest (8;6;3)

Evolution (6;7;6)

Fikloo: The Game of Crazy Commands (5;2;1)

Kiss My Rules! (2;3;2)

Quelf (9;7;8)
Quiz Games

800: The Game of Verbal Perfection (7;5;4)

Don't Quote Me - TIME for Kids Edition (9;6;5)

mental_floss: The Trivia Game (6;6;5)

Mind's I (4;4;3)

*Wits & Wagers (7;8;8)

You Must Be an Idiot! (9;9;9)
"Roll Dice And Move" Games

Da Vinci Code Board Game (2;9;7)

Pairs or Better (4;1;2)

Tricky Town (5;8;6)

Urban Legends the Game (1;2;1)

Wreck the Nation: the Game of Political Misbehavior (1;2;1)
Number and Math Games

Zeus on the Loose (8;8;7)
Word and Language Games

Heximania (6;4;8)

Jot (6;4;3)

*Keesdrow (9;7;9)

Nerdy Wordy (6;4;5)

Pick Two Deluxe (7;6;3)

Sketchword (7;7;5)

Snatch (7;6;4)

Wordigy: A World of Words for Family Fun (3;1;1)
Reflex and Reaction Games

Match of the Penguins (3;5;3)

Space Faces (4;7;6)

Thing-A-Ma-Bots (4;6;5)

Top Speed (6;7;5)
Strategy Card Games

Da Vinci's Challenge Card Game (4;3;2)

It-Dah-Gan (7;8;5)

Pepper (9;7;5)

Poison (7;8;5)
Strategy Dice Games

Cosmic Cows (5;5;4)

Pickomino (8;7;9)
Family Strategy ("German") Games

Castle Keep (3;8;5)
Abstract Strategy Games -- Pure Abstract

Byte (9;6;1)

Cephalopod (8;8;1)

*Deflexion (7;4;8)

Diffusion (9;7;1)

Dragon Chess (6;6;4)

*Hive (9;7;8)

Net Y (8;6;1)

Pacru 302 (7;6;6)

*Pentago (8;8;7)

Pünct (8;6;10)

Ringgz (5;3;2)
Abstract Strategy Games -- Luck or Hidden Information

Darter (8;8;7)
One Player Games

Gordian's Knot (2;5;10)

LonPos 101 Pyramid and Rectangle Game (4;6;9)

Regatta (2;9;9)

Summit (3;2;7)
Games With Original Themes

Codebreaker (6;7;6)

Debate This! (7;3;3)

Net Y

(search on Board Game Geek)

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

Three games of Y played simultaneously on nested truncated tetrahedra.

Uh, yeah, that's pretty much the game description. Note that this game is completely free; just download the image off the website, get a couple of pens of different color, and you're done!

If you're played the game of Y and are familiar with it, then this little expansion to it will probably be interesting, especially if you find Y analyzed to death and want a slightly new variant. But... are there actually any people that fit that category? As far as I know, there are two types of people in the world: Those who think Y is a great game, still has a lot to be discovered about it, and aren't even close to tiring about it ... and those who find the game as uninteresting as watching ink dry.

I think that overall, the human race will have to gain a few more average IQ points, and lose a lot of modern-day entertainment, before this game will have a shot at hitting the mass market. (And is that a good thing or a bad thing...?)

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By Wei-Hwa Huang