For almost as long as there have been games there have been card games, with the first going right back to the 600s in China. There is something about a hand of cards, a secret knowledge and the tactile reveal in front of the other players that speaks to the human race. Most households these days will have at least a deck of cards in order to play snap, or hearts or even solitaire. Perhaps the most commonly placed deck however is Uno, which like it or not cannot be escaped. As the card game equivalent of Monopoly, Uno has become the go to, not because it is the best but because people know it. It’s recognisable and comfortable. But there are so many simple to learn card games out there that offer a more interesting gameplay. Mind Up just happens to be one of them.
Making your Mind up!
Mind Up is essentially a game about trying to guess what your opponents are going to do in order to manipulate the cards you are going to get. It starts with everyone receiving a hand of seven cards (in the first round, then eight in the second and nine in the final round). There are sixty cards numbered exactly so, spread over a number of different colours or suits. Each player also has a set of five cards in front of them which are scoring stations, numbered one to five and in the centre of the table are five randomly dealt card in ascending order.
For almost as long as there have been games there have been card games, with the first going right back to the 600s in China. There is something about a hand of cards, a secret knowledge and the tactile reveal in front of the other players that speaks to the human race. Most households these days will have at least a deck of cards in order to play snap, or hearts or even solitaire. Perhaps the most commonly placed deck however is Uno, which like it or not cannot be escaped. As the card game equivalent of Monopoly, Uno has become the go to, not because it is the best but because people know it. It’s recognisable and comfortable. But there are so many simple to learn card games out there that offer a more interesting gameplay. Mind Up just happens to be one of them.
Making your Mind up!
Mind Up is essentially a game about trying to guess what your opponents are going to do in order to manipulate the cards you are going to get. It starts with everyone receiving a hand of seven cards (in the first round, then eight in the second and nine in the final round). There are sixty cards numbered exactly so, spread over a number of different colours or suits. Each player also has a set of five cards in front of them which are scoring stations, numbered one to five and in the centre of the table are five randomly dealt card in ascending order.
Each turns consists of all players secretly selecting a card from their hand and then simultaneously revealing them. In ascending order they are placed under the cards in the middle of the table and then all plays take the card above the one they just played. All sounds very easy right? Well…when you get a card you must then place it on a scoring card in front of you. But you must fill from left to right and only the same colour can share a card and scoring will work by multiplying the scoring card number by how many of the same coloured cards lay on it, so trying to collect as many as you can of the same colour may well be important to you.
Each round will last as long as you have cards in your hand, with the last card in each players hand becoming to new central row and then scoring your cards. At the end of the third round, scores are tallied from each round and highest score will win.
What makes Mind Up interesting is trying to preempt what the other plays are going for and trying to pick a card that will end up under the card you want. It has a touch of the now classic 6 Nimnt about it where plans can backfire really quickly if another player plays a lower or higher card than you had planned which makes for very exciting gameplay.
There is also an additional modules that adds in bonus cards that will either give you extra points or take them away of you place certain colours on certain scoring cards or have a certain amount of a specific colour cards at the end of the round. Although this is not encouraged to throw into the mix for the first game, it really does add a higher amount of variation in what could otherwise become a little stale.
Overall, Mind Up is a fast paced and interesting game that really doesn’t take long to teach. Despite a little fiddly at first, when it gets into full swing it can really does flow really well. If I was to have one negative point, I really wish games that ask you to keep scores in between rounds, provide score sheets to do so, it’s a little thing but having to either use your phone or scramble around to find a piece of scrap paper and pens can really start a game with a negative energy. Other than that, it shouldn’t take long to make your Mind Up about this game, it’s absolutely worth a try!
