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)

    • Luck of the Draw

    (search on Board Game Geek)

    small pic of Luck of the Draw small pic of Luck of the Draw in play small pic of Luck of the Draw in play small pic of Luck of the Draw in play

    • Replay Value (1-10): 4
    • Fun Factor (1-10): 8
    • Worth Buying (1-10): 4

    In this party game, a random word is chosen (such as "volcano") and all players have 45 seconds to draw a volcano. Then, all the volcanoes are shuffled, placed in the center, and then one attribute is drawn (such as "the one that has the most action"). All players then vote on which drawing best fits the attribute, and the drawing with the most votes gains points. Up to three attributes can be drawn per picture round, although that's mostly a minor detail.

    The game can potentially be pretty fun, as long as no one at the table is actually trying to win. What that means is that I'll probably never have fun with it. The problem is that, if a player is actually trying to win, the drawing part of the game is very frustrating because you don't know what attributes are going to come up, and the voting part is also annoying because clearly the best strategy is always to vote for your own painting. (The rules say "you can only vote for your own painting if it is truly deserving," but there's no penalty for violating that rule.) Overall, a nice concept, but the mechanics and scoring of the game could really use an overhaul.

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    By Wei-Hwa Huang