Game Review

Concept:

Mind Trap is a trivia game filled with brain-teasers and logic problems.

Gameplay:

Players break up into teams. Each team selects a path on the "Escher-esque" score card.

Teams decide which group goes first. A member of the team whose turn it isn't is selected to read the question. The reader draws a card, then reads the question aloud to his/her team, then flips the card over and silently reads the answer. If answered correctly, the team receives one point and then chooses to either answer another question or roll the dice for a number of bonus points (the dice has numbers 0, 1, 2 and 3.)

If the team answers incorrectly, the opponent team (without the member reading the question) is allowed to answer. If correct, they receive a bonus point.

Once the dice have been rolled, or a question was answered incorrectly, the other team is asked the questions.

The game ends when one team reaches the end of the scorecard on points.

One special rule is applied to the questions: if a question is marked with a small black diamond, the players who are answering the question may ask "Yes/No/Irrelevant" questions to clarify the puzzle. Also, many of the questions require an explanation beyond the basic answer -- the expected reason is written in the answer; Simply guessing is discouraged.

Winning Conditions:

• For the Short game, the first team to 14 points, wins.

• For the Long game, the first team to 24 points, wins.

Our Opinion:

This game is a lot of fun for excercising your left-brain skills. It is litterally a collection of very famous riddles and logic problems plus many more.

As the name implies -- every question could be a trick-question,and often, they are. Mind Trap is a bit too cerebral for most parties, but when you have a group over it really gets everyone who isn't playing interested quickly.

One of my favorite questions is this: "How many of each animal did Moses take on the Ark with him?" Simple right? 90% of the time people answer "Two," and then look confused -- it was seemingly too easy; In Reality it was too easy the answer is "Zero -- It was Noah's ark."

Don't play this game around a bunch of engineering students or computer programmers -- we've heard so many of these questions in school and just over time that after about 2 turns into the game, they can answer 10 questions in a row correctly. There's no time limit, so most of the questions are answerable after a short amount of logical banter between the math-centric players. In our house, we require the dice to get rolled after 2 questions so that both teams get to play.

Mind Trap is almost 10 years old now, and I still see it in stores -- it's price is much cheaper than when it first came out. It's a good buy now and worth its price.

Where to buy:

Any local toy store -- Our copy was from a Target and cost about $10.