Game Reviews: Mensa Mind Games®, year 2010

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 2010. (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
  • Truth Be Told (7;5;6;31st/28th)
    Party Games: Artistic skill
  • Sounds Like a Plan (7;6;4;21st/11th)
  • Stix & Stones (6;7;9;36th/20th)
  • Yamodo Party Time (8;6;5;29th/25th)
    Quiz Games
  • Locale (6;5;3;37th/29th)
    "Roll Dice And Move" Games
  • DECALOGUE The Ten Commandments Game (3;1;1;45th/44th)
  • Riches 'n Rascals (2;4;6;8th/7th)
    Number and Math Games
  • Ergo (6;4;6;14th/27th)
    Word and Language Games
  • Letter Roll (7;4;3;19th/17th)
  • Scravage (7;6;6;7th/31st)
  • Spellen-Meister (7;3;1;46th/45th)
  • Syllaballistic (6;4;4;27th/18th)
  • *Word on the Street (9;9;8;1st/1st)
    Reflex and Reaction Games
  • *Anomia (7;8;7;12th/5th)
  • Circle Out! (3;4;1;43rd/39th)
  • Hands Up! (6;6;4;44th/38th)
  • Q-bitz (7;6;5;25th/19th)
  • 7 Ate 9 (5;7;4;39th/30th)
  • Tri-Spy (4;7;5;22th/24th)
    Dexterity Games
  • Bisikle (6;7;8;3rd/13th)
  • *Yikerz! (4;7;6;11th/10th)
    Strategy Card Games
  • Cornucopia (8;7;7;5th/26th)
  • Ingenious Inventions (3;2;3;48th/36th)
  • Masters Gallery (9;7;7;32nd/16th)
  • Opus-Dei: Existence After Religion (7;4;4;24th/21st)
  • Prime (6;5;7;33rd/32nd)
  • Rowboat (9;7;5;30th/41st)
  • Simpatico (4;4;2;38th/34th)
  • Triplica (4;3;2;34th/33rd)
    Family Strategy ("German") Games
  • Fish Stix (5;6;4;20th/22nd)
  • Gems of Virtues (8;7;7;9th/3rd)
    Abstract Strategy Games -- Pure Abstract
  • Arimaa (10;6;6;4th/9th)
  • Cannonball Colony (7;8;6;10th/6th)
  • Octatrix (8;1;1;49th/49th)
  • Pentago Multi-Player (8;6;9;15th/14th)
  • Rapid 4 More (7;4;3;13th/8th)
  • Zenith (7;5;7;18th/15th)
    Abstract Strategy Games -- Luck or Hidden Information
  • Be FOUR You Know (5;5;2;42nd/37th)
  • *Dizios (6;8;9;6th/2nd)
  • Kachina (9;7;8;2nd/12th)
  • Tri-Cross (7;4;6;41th/36th)
    One Player Games
  • AnimaLogic (2;5;4;17th/40th)
  • Cobra Cubes (2;6;5;28rd/43th)
  • Crazy Cheese Puzzle (1;3;2;47th/47th)
  • Dig It (2;6;7;26th/35th)
  • Mirrorkal Escher Puzzle (3;6;5;23rd/23rd)
    Games With Original Themes
  • Agreed (2;2;1;35th/48th)
  • *Forbidden Island (7;9;10;16th/4th)
  • Rory's Story Cubes (9;1;1;40th/42nd)
  • Hands Up!

    (search on Board Game Geek)

    small pic of Hands Up! in play small pic of Hands Up! in play small pic of Hands Up! in play small pic of Hands Up! in play

    • Replay Value (1-10): 6
    • Fun Factor (1-10): 6
    • Worth Buying (1-10): 4
    • MMG Popularity Rank (out of 49): 44th/38th
    A cute little reaction game reminiscent of Set. Each player has a face-down deck and simultaneously turns one face up into the center of the table. If you can find a specific combination of cards (similar to rules for Set but with some tweaks), you win the round and take all the cards into your deck. A player is eliminated when they lose all their cards.

    The theme works well enough, and the large gemstone (apparently a reject from some large chandelier) is a fun tactile-thing to grab onto to indicate who's faster at noticing the combination. The octagonal cards, on the other hand, are amazingly unsuitable for this game. They're hard to shuffle, they're hard to flip, and they're hard to collect. As a result the game feels just a bit on the unwieldy side. The different "shapes" are a bit less distinctive than Set, which is also disappointing. Still, not a bad game at all if you're in the mood for a fast-paced reaction game.


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    By Wei-Hwa Huang