Game Reviews: Mensa Mind Games®, year 2007

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 2007. (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 100 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

Head1liners (5;6;6)

*Hit or Miss (8;8;9)

Rhyme N Tyme (8;5;6)

Take Your Best Shot (8;6;10)
Party Games: Artistic skill

Luck of the Draw (4;8;4)
Party Games: A Variety of Tasks
Quiz Games

Cineplexity (8;9;6)

NAQ (8;10;7)

Numaro (4;6;4)

Take A Wild Guess (3;3;1)
"Roll Dice And Move" Games

Postcards from North America (2;7;2)

*Skullduggery (5;7;5)
Number and Math Games

Equalz (5;7;4)

Space TiVitz (5;5;7)
Word and Language Games

Bananagrams (7;9;8)

disorder (9;9;7)

Lim (Letter Cube Cards) (4;5;6)

Merriam-Webster's Word Sweep! (9;7;7)

Sneak A Peek (The Crossword Game) (6;3;4)

You've Been Sentenced! (5;6;5)

Zotto (4;5;3)
Reflex and Reaction Games

Poppo! (3;3;7)

Slap Wacky! (5;3;2)

Three of a Crime (7;8;8)

Toppo (9;9;8)
Dexterity Games

Kippit (8;8;9)

Shakedown (6;5;6)
Strategy Card Games

Abridged (7;9;5)

Ka-Ching! (9;9;10)

Margin for Error (8;9;5)
Strategy Dice Games
Family Strategy ("German") Games

*Gheos (8;9;9)

Aussie Rules Super Subsistence Farmer (10;9;2)

Medici vs. Strossi (7;8;8)

Treasure Fleet (8;8;6)
Abstract Strategy Games -- Pure Abstract

Babylon (5;4;4)

Cover Up (4;3;7)

Mix-Up (8;7;9)

Newton's Apples (3;4;5)

Project Kells - Tara (6;6;10)

Skybridge (3;4;7)

Spin & Trap (2;2;7)
Abstract Strategy Games -- Luck or Hidden Information

Bendomino (6;5;8)

Cromlet (6;8;6)

*Gemlok (7;7;8)

Mimic (3;5;2)

Quirky (4;4;6)

*Qwirkle (8;9;10)

24/7 the Game (7;7;10)
War or Combat Games

HeroCard: Cyberspace (5;7;6)

HeroCard: Rise of the Shogun (5;7;5)
One Player Games

Aqube (1;1;3)

Blik-Blok (1;3;1)

Cliko (6;2;5)

Cover Your Tracks (5;1;6)

Logic Links (2;1;1)

Meta-Forms (6;2;5)

Noodlers (3;1;2)

Zoologic (7;2;4)
Games With Original Themes

Kingka (2;2;6)

Yamodo! (1;1;3)

Skybridge

(search on Board Game Geek)

Replay Value (1-10): 3
Fun Factor (1-10): 4
Worth Buying (1-10): 7

This is a nice-looking abstract game where players build tall towers atop nine platforms arranged in a 3x3 grid. When a player uses a turn to cap a tower, then the height of that tower will be part of their final turn. This creates a pretty simple game element where players are all trying to build towers high before they collect them, but not so high that other players will want to collect them. Touching blocks can never be of the same color, so tall towers will always be built by more than one player. Finally, each player can build a limited number of bridges; a bridge connecting two towers means that either tower is worth the combined height of the two towers, but only if it is scored by the color of the bridge.

The rules are simple, and the pieces are pretty well-made. Although perhaps some simple game-theory analysis might reveal thre to be a problem, it wasn't obvious to me after a few plays. This game would be pretty suitable for a casual coffee table, and looks very nice to boot, but I would have a hard time seeing it be taken as a serious abstract strategy game.

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By Wei-Hwa Huang