YORKTON - An often almost overlooked area of board gaming are those games which involve only a deck of cards – you can have a rather protracted debate at the game table whether card games are even legitimate card games, but we’ll set that aside for this review.
As you might have already picked up on, this week The Meeple Guild is reviewing a card game.
The game is Mind Up from designer Maxime Rambourg, artist Christine Alcouffe and publisher Catch Up Games, and distributed in Canada by ilo307.com
In Mind Up you start with a line of cards on the table -- as many cards as players.
Each turn, players pick a card from their hand and simultaneously reveal it to make a new line, ordered from the lowest to the highest card.
Each player then takes the card in the previous line at the same position as the one they just played, adding it to their tableau.
These cards will score points at the end of the round, depending on their color and the order they were picked.
After being scored, they become the player's hand for the next round.
If that sounds like a rather simple rule set, well it is.
This is not a particularly deep, brain burning game – but neither is Gin Rummy and it has been a classic card game for decades.
That said designer Rambourg has managed some neat twists in Mind Up.
To start that the cards you select and score on one hand becoming the cards you then play next hand is a neat idea, although in card games control of what cards you have is always largely luck.
Having a scoring track which changes after each hand is also fun, as it changes what you chase from the revealed cards.
It all plays quickly which is a good thing with card games.
Since Mind Up allows for three-to-six to play is a nice feature as it’s a pretty wide range when family or friends gather.
The card art by Alcouffe is more graphic design with functionality in mind than offering a memorable range of art but it works.
Mind Up fits snuggly into the card game realm of Uno or Skip Bo – but edges ahead of either because it’s simply new and fresher.
If you like relaxing, social card games then having Mind Up on the shelf will be a nice fit.
