If like me you have kids, you may have wondered for some time if they have been affected by a mindbug, a tiny little creature taking control of them and whispering instructions into their ear. Things like, ‘nah don’t put that food waste in the bin, just place it next to it’ or ‘you know how your mum is dishing up tea (or dinner if your southern… and wrong), well now’s the best time to ask for a snack’ I mean honestly why else would they do such things it’s the only explanation!
Well, Mindbug is a two-player card game where you’re building your creature army to try and defeat your foe, but you’ll both have two mindbugs at your disposal to take control of your opponent’s creatures and recruiting them to your own army. Fortunately, in this game the mindbugs don’t encourage toddlers to empty a full container of talcum powder in the living room or indeed suggest they ask you such taxing questions as ‘why are all people humans?’
I don’t really control your mind; I just made you think I did…
In mindbug you’ll find 48 creature cards with various skills and abilities, two mind bugs per player and a score counter each. You will never use all 48 cards in a game as each player is dealt a starting hand of just ten cards, five in your hand and five in your draw pile. The round structure is quick and simple, on your turn you can either summon a creature from your hand into your chimera army in front of you or choose to attack your opponent using one of the beasts you laid down earlier. The aim is to reduce your foes life counter to zero and reign victorious!
Each creature is assigned a value to show you how strong it is, obviously the higher the number the stronger the card but some of them also have abilities. These can trigger at different times within the game, sometimes when the card is played, or perhaps when it is defeated. Many also have keywords, these are kind of a special trait about the card that constantly applies. Both of these things can make even the lowest value cards a tough adversary to defeat.
To start neither of you will have any cards in your army so its probably a good Idea to get some recruited right off the bat (well that’s all you can do at the beginning) Should you choose to use your turn to attack, it is up to your opposition if they choose to block or not. If they don’t or indeed can’t (if they have no cards currently in their army) then they lose one of their lives. However if they choose to block your attack, they get to select which of their team to send out in reply, the weaker card in the battle between the two is defeated and scurries away to the relevant discard pile.
To defend or not to defend, a question made all the more complex by the fact you only start with 3 lives and the ways to increase them are few and far between.
Are you thinking what I’m thinking?
So, what’s going on with those abilities, keywords and mindbugs? First off, the abilities – these usually come into effect when the card is played, defeated or attacks, but occasionally they’re just active all the time. Abilities consist of things like, forcing your opponent to discard a card or allowing you to play from your discard pile. The really devious ones often allow you to instantly take a life from your opponent or even give you lives back.
Next up keywords, there are five of these in total, your creature may have more than one or non at all! FRENZY is like the feisty, wiry guy that’s always up for a rumble, this skill allows your beast to attack a second time should it survive the first, whereas TOUGH on the other hand is a guy whose built like a brick outhouse and looks like he’s made of stone, this skill is like a second chance and allows you to exhaust your card the first time its defeated. The other three are
HUNTER, POISONOUS and SNEAKY but I’ll let you figure out what they might do or what persona they might embody.
Not forgetting that both abilities and keywords are on show face up in both armies, this can really make you second guess your plan. Should you go for the attack and risk triggering that ‘defeated’ ability on your opponent’s explosive toad should they use it to block or perhaps fortify your army by laying down more troops instead? It’s a bit like deciding whether to wake up a sleeping pre-teen on a weekend or to enjoy the peace for a while longer. But time is ticking on and with only 10 cards in total to choose from have you got time to hang around.
Now we get to those mindbugs, each player will have two mindbugs to use wisely, as once they’re attached to a beast they are stuck there and cannot be used again, a bit like a teenager and a mobile phone! You’ll get two chance and two chances only to steal your oppositions creatures as they play them into their army, and no you can’t counter with a mindbug to snatch it back (come on, I know you were thinking it!)
Controlling thoughts? It’s all in your mind…
Mindbug is a fast-paced card game that can play in as little as ten minutes, a great game for a family with older primary age kids. Although some strategy is involved, with its quick pace and limited cards per game you don’t have time to over think it. Personally, I’m not sure it’s my kind of game as I initially I found gameplay far too quick and was left wondering if I’d miss-read the rules and played it wrong. I was indeed playing wrong, or should I say I had the wrong gameplan. I had got bogged down in setting up my army and not attacking enough, and I think I totally forgot about the mindbugs (and thats the name of the game!) I’ve given it a few more chances and it is growing on me, but perhaps I’d just prefer a longer game where I have more opportunity to scheme.
The rules are succinct and for the most part, really well set out, on the back of the rules it summarises the ability triggers and key words but might’ve been nice to have a reference card for this. There is room for some slight clarification on some of the card’s abilities but the majority of them are straight forward enough. There can often be multiple keywords and abilities in play so its often quite the task to make sure all are being applied, and this can sometimes lead to frustration in younger players.
Overall, the quality of the cards and components are nice, and the illustrations are top notch, containing enough beastliness without being too grisly. There’s a great balance of different skills across the cards to keep it interesting and because you use less than half the deck to play, every game has a different dynamic. Only starting with three lives and having hardly any cards to help you gain more helps ensure the game time is kept short, which mean it’s a great game for on the go.
