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)
  • Space TiVitz

    (search on Board Game Geek)

    small pic of Space TiVitz small pic of Space TiVitz in play small pic of Space TiVitz in play small pic of Space TiVitz in play

    • Replay Value (1-10): 5
    • Fun Factor (1-10): 5
    • Worth Buying (1-10): 7

    The basic game here plays pretty much like Chinese Checkers; one player starts with pieces at the lower-left and tries to move all their pieces to the upper-right, while the other player starts with pieces at the lower-right and tries to move to the upper-left. The game comes with a large collection of game boards, and on the most basic gameboard the best strategy is basically to move all your pieces up the fastest. For the other gameboards, however, arithmetic becomes a necessary skill; each piece has a numeric value, and each destination spot has some arithmetic operators that affect your final score. For example, getting your "40" piece into the "x5" spot is much better than, say, getting your "24" piece and "32" piece into "-3" spots.

    With 6 different sets of starting numbers, and dozens of different numbers on the gameboards, ostensibly this is never the same game twice. However, among adults who have no problem doing arithmetic, most of the games will probably evolve along the same strategy lines. Some of the more "advanced" gameboards have a lot of arithmetic that is educational but unnecessary (for example, having "x2^3" instead of "x8"). Probably good if your children need to practice those math skills, but adults may find this game somewhat tedious.


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    By Wei-Hwa Huang