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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  • Baffle Gab (6;5;3)
  • Bonkers (6;6;4)
  • Byte (9;6;1)
  • Castle Keep (3;8;5)
  • Cephalopod (8;8;1)
  • Codebreaker (6;7;6)
  • Cosmic Cows (5;5;4)
  • Darter (8;8;7)
  • Da Vinci's Challenge Card Game (4;3;2)
  • Da Vinci Code Board Game (2;9;7)
  • Debate This! (7;3;3)
  • *Deflexion (7;4;8)
  • Diffusion (9;7;1)
  • Don't Quote Me - TIME for Kids Edition (9;6;5)
  • Dragon Chess (6;6;4)
  • 800: The Game of Verbal Perfection (7;5;4)
  • Eve's Quest (8;6;3)
  • Evolution (6;7;6)
  • Fikloo: The Game of Crazy Commands (5;2;1)
  • Gordian's Knot (2;5;10)
  • Heximania (6;4;8)
  • *Hive (9;7;8)
  • The Invention Game (6;6;7)
  • It-Dah-Gan (7;8;5)
  • JabberJot (7;6;4)
  • Jot (6;4;3)
  • *Keesdrow (9;7;9)
  • Kiss My Rules! (2;3;2)
  • Linq (6;8;6)
  • LonPos 101 Pyramid and Rectangle Game (4;6;9)
  • Match of the Penguins (3;5;3)
  • mental_floss: The Trivia Game (6;6;5)
  • Mind's I (4;4;3)
  • Nerdy Wordy (6;4;5)
  • Net Y (8;6;1)
  • Nymble (6;5;4)
  • Pacru 302 (7;6;6)
  • Pairs or Better (4;1;2)
  • *Pentago (8;8;7)
  • Pepper (9;7;5)
  • Pickomino (8;7;9)
  • Pick Two Deluxe (7;6;3)
  • Poison (7;8;5)
  • Portrayal (5;7;9)
  • Pünct (8;6;10)
  • Quelf (9;7;8)
  • Questionary (8;8;5)
  • Regatta (2;9;9)
  • Ringgz (5;3;2)
  • Sketchword (7;7;5)
  • Snatch (7;6;4)
  • Space Faces (4;7;6)
  • Summit (3;2;7)
  • Thing-A-Ma-Bots (4;6;5)
  • Top Speed (6;7;5)
  • Tricky Town (5;8;6)
  • Urban Legends the Game (1;2;1)
  • *Wits & Wagers (7;8;8)
  • Wordigy: A World of Words for Family Fun (3;1;1)
  • Wreck the Nation: the Game of Political Misbehavior (1;2;1)
  • You Must Be an Idiot! (9;9;9)
  • Zeus on the Loose (8;8;7)
  • Pepper

    (search on Board Game Geek)

    small pic of Pepper small pic of Pepper in play small pic of Pepper in play

    • Replay Value (1-10): 9
    • Fun Factor (1-10): 7
    • Worth Buying (1-10): 5
    The theme is a playground ball game, the deck is a simple deck with 5 suits of numbers from 1 to 5, and the rules are very simple ... but be warned, there's a vicious little braintwister hidden underneath there. Five cards are dealt randomly out to each player, and then a start player (chosen at random) "attacks" another player (the "victim") by playing a card in front of the "victim." If you are the "victim", you have two choices: you can either "deflect" the attack (by playing a higher card or any card in the same suit on any other player, including the original attacker), or by losing to the attack (in which case you take all the cards up in front of you (from previous attacks) into your hand, and start a new attack). The way to win is to attack (or deflect an attack) with your last card and have it not be deflected.

    This game was very surprising. Unlike all the other games, even after two plays I felt I didn't really have a good grasp of how strategy was supposed to work in the game at all. Certainly after a few attack rounds all the cards have gone every which way into other players hands and back. It seems like the first few rounds are most feeling around, trying to get an idea of what cards are in the limited "deck" you're playing with, then strategizing enough to set things up to hit a vulnerable opponent at just the right time. But since all players are trying to do this, there has to be a second-layer of strategy, but what is it? I definitely left the game feeling like I wanted to sit down with a piece of paper and a few hours of spare time and work out a few end-game scenarios.

    And yet, ironically, the rules are simple enough that kids can play this game quickly and effortlessly and still have fun.

    My old friend Doug Hoylman declared that this was, in his opinion, the best new game he played that weekend (Pickomino and Poison were probably better, but he had played them before). I can easily believe that.


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    By Wei-Hwa Huang