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)
  • Evolution

    (search on Board Game Geek)

    small pic of Evolution small pic of Evolution in play

    • Replay Value (1-10): 6
    • Fun Factor (1-10): 7
    • Worth Buying (1-10): 6
    Players group up into teams, and get on this "evolution" track. At the beginning of their turn, they check what sort of space they are on, draw a challenge card, and if they succeed in that challenge, they get to roll the die and advance. The challenges are themed towards the stage of evolution: the "primate" stage has miming, the "early human" stage has image recognition, etc.

    Ah yes, another game thinking that they can cause a sensation by emulating Cranium. (Hint to game companies: Cranium did well because of their amazing marketing campaign, not because of any special achievement in game design.) This one isn't particularly bad; it's certainly an improvement over Cranium, and there aren't that many games that pass that bar (though you'd think it wouldn't be that hard). The theme works well with the challenges. The only problem I have is the standard six-sided die -- when you need six times the worst-possible to roll to match the best-possible roll, the game can often be determined by who has better luck on the die -- and that's not something a party game should have.


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    By Wei-Hwa Huang