We tried psychic readings in The Mind, the next game in our A-Z game shelf play-through.
Basic Info: The Mind
Players: 2-4
Time: 15 Minutes
Designers: Wolfgang Warsch
Artists: Oliver Freudenreich
Publisher: Pandasaurus Games
The Mind is a cooperative card game where players attempt to lay cards from their hands in ascending order without communicating with the other players. The game is played in rounds, with players starting each with a number of cards equal to the round number. If they succeed in surviving a number of rounds (depending on player-count), they win.
The game is set up by laying out the number of lives, shurikens, and level count cards for the player count. The number cards (numbered 1-100) are shuffled and each player gets a hand of one card.
Players look at their cards, and when they are ready to play, they lay one of their hands on the table. Once everyone is ready, they pull their hands up. There are no turns. Whoever thinks they have the lowest card, plays it face-up on the table. The other players simply play their card face-up when they think the time is right. The goal is to play all cards from all players’ hands in ascending order. If a card is played out of order, players lose a life and continue. If they succeed, all of the number cards are shuffled, and players continue with round two — each starting with a hand of two cards.
The shurikens can be played at any time. A player signals that they want to play a shuriken by holding up one hand. If others agree (by also holding one hand up), they activate the shuriken by discarding it, then all players lay their lowest-numbered card face-up on the table.
Play continues until players run out of lives, and lose, or until they complete the number of rounds for their player count, and they win!
We picked up this game after hearing some of the buzz about it last year. It sounded like a fun game to play with a variety of our friends. Unfortunately it doesn’t come out very often … we’ve found a few of our regulars at our game nights don’t seem to enjoy games where we aren’t allowed to talk. However, when we get the right group together, we pull it out.
How is it as a 2-player game? The Mind works fairly well as a 2-player game. I haven’t gotten to play it much at higher player counts, so I can’t compare. I like it at two — it feels fairly intimate.
How about the art and component quality? The cards are decent, and the art … well, the art is cute, but doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.
Will this stay in my collection? Yup, this is a keeper. Hopefully we’ll get it out a little more often … well, once we start having game nights again, that is.
This game makes me crazy. I’m no good at being quiet. I agree about the art.