The Mind
“Eyes locked, card in hand. Are you and your friends ready to become one mind? The mind is the ingenious, Spiel des Jahres [Game of the Year] nominated, hyper-addictive card game that everyone is buzzing about. How do you know what is in someone`s hands without speaking? How do you make the right decision when the game is on the line? The magic of this little game will amaze you.”
2-4 players | 20 min. | ages 8+
I’m not going to give a detailed explanation of the game play and rules, because honestly it doesn’t make any sense until you play it.
The first day I learned how to play The Mind I played for HOURS. It has this addictive quality where you feel instantly connected to everyone in the game. If someone becomes distracted the group will “concentrate”, which means all players put their hand on the table and we continue playing after we have regrouped. In other words, there’s no reaching for your phone in the middle of a round. Not that you really want to. The rounds feel quick, but also like the group has their own sense of how much time as passed.
This simple card game is all about trying to play cards in order without talking and without dedicated turns. If the 9 has been played, and the lowest card in your hand is a 20, you play the 20 when enough time has passed that you think the players with 10-19 would have had enough time to play their cards. If you’re wrong, the player with a 10-19 says STOP and we lose a life. We continue up the levels until we win, then go back to the beginning and play blind.
Each group you play with feels like a different experience. If the last time you played you got to Level 8 that means nothing for the next game you play.
There’s no good amount of players for this game. You can play with 2, 3, or 4 and have a great experience.
Have you played The Mind? Let us know what you thought of it in the comments!