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)
  • Pünct

    (search on Board Game Geek)

    (small images)
    large pic of Pünct

    • Replay Value (1-10): 8
    • Fun Factor (1-10): 6
    • Worth Buying (1-10): 10
    This is the next (and, I hear, last) game in Kris Burm's Gipf series, and is the first one in a while to not actually win the Mensa Select award. It is somewhat reminiscent of Hex or Twixt in that your goal is to connect two opposite sides of the large hexagonal board (although it doesn't matter which pair), but unlike those games, your pieces can move around and (subject to certain constraints) can even move on top of other pieces.

    I'm not sure what it is that makes this game not as attractive as Zertz or Dvonn, but I definitely felt it. Perhaps it is the old strategy vs. tactics balance; in "N-in-a-row" games, it is more important to look at local moves and counter moves (tactics), while in "connect the edges" games, it is more important to place bases at distances and slowly connect them (strategy). Much like a good game of Go, you really won't have much of an idea of what good strategy is your first few games -- but unlike Go, there aren't mounds of literature guiding you on what to do.

    Like always, though, the pieces and board are very satisfying to hold and place.


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    By Wei-Hwa Huang