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

    • Byte

    (search on Board Game Geek)

    small pic of Byte small pic of Byte in play small pic of Byte in play small pic of Byte in play

    • Replay Value (1-10): 9
    • Fun Factor (1-10): 6
    • Worth Buying (1-10): 1
    This game is played with a checkers set. It's an innovative little game about stacking checkers -- the game starts with 24 checkers in two colors, and always ends with three stacks of 8 checkers. Winner is the player who has two of the top three checkers in those three stacks. The rules are a bit too intricate to explain in a short paragraph, so I won't bother here.

    After the first play, I wasn't convinced there was a game here. A lot of the moves seemed pretty random and forced, and although I felt like I was making decisions I wasn't able to look ahead enough to see if my decisions were actually doing anything. So I simplified the game a bit, by just taking two stacks of four checkers each, putting them next to each other, and figuring out who can force a win. It turned out to be surprisingly non-trivial, and definitely worth thought.

    So I have to conclude that this must be a good game here... I'd probably really like it if I could devote a few hours to it and visualize how the moves work.

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    By Wei-Hwa Huang