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.



Sort By Name
Sort By Ranking
Sort By Category
  • 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)
  • Zeus on the Loose

    (search on Board Game Geek)

    small pic of Zeus on the Loose small pic of Zeus on the Loose in play

    • Replay Value (1-10): 8
    • Fun Factor (1-10): 8
    • Worth Buying (1-10): 7
    This game is a improved variation on the classic adding game of One Hundred. There's a central pile of cards with a value that starts at zero. Each player, on their turn, plays a card, adds its value to the pile value, announces the pile value, and draws a replacement card. If you make the pile value a multiple of ten, you grab the cute cartoony Zeus figurine that comes with the game. When the pile value goes above 100, whomever has the Zeus figurine wins. (If it hits 100 exactly, whomever makes it hit 100 wins.) If that were it, it would still be a reasonable game, albeit a bit boring, so the inventors have spiced it up by adding multiple "god" cards that do interesting things to the pile value, and by allowing players to steal the turn by playing an identical number card to whatever card is on top.

    I already thought that the original game of One Hundred was a pretty entertaining game, and this version adds enough to give it its own distinctive style while not damaging the fun of it... in fact, it probably even increases the fun, which is rarer still. Deep strategy thinkers probably aren't going to find anything here, but it makes for a nice light game. I was also impressed by the small subtleties (such as indices on the cards) that inexperienced game makers tend to forget, another plus.


    Return to Introduction

    Other MMG Reviews


    By Wei-Hwa Huang