Become a Mastermind

As we’re closing in on 80 board game and card game reviews, we think it’s time to pull out a classic family game that’s also on our Top 10 “Must Have” family board games list – Mastermind. Mastermind is a game that I remember playing with my family when I was growing up. I loved the deduction involved in the game and loved the feeling of being smart enough to solve the puzzle set out by the other player.

In this week’s board game review, Brooke shows you what Mastermind is all about.

Can the whole family enjoy Mastermind?

Absolutely! Mastermind is a game that works well for the whole family. Of course, it’s going to be more difficult for younger children, but there are ways to adjust the game so they can start to understand it. But one of the things we’ve loved about Mastermind is the chance to challenge our younger children with it. Mastermind has been a great way to teach them deduction skills from an early age.

Not just for family game time

Mastermind is also a great game for challenging friends. We took Mastermind along with us for a summer boy scout camp and it was a huge hit around camp. When the scouts weren’t off at their merit badge classes or other scout activities and they were hanging around the camp site, they’d pull out Mastermind and challenge each other to a game. And they would always have spectators calling for the next game. It was pretty cool to see how the boys improved in their deductive reasoning over the course of 5 days at camp.

Ultimate Mastermind — Take the challenge up a notch.

Additional challenges

As Brooke mentioned in her video review, if you think guessing a pattern of 4 colors isn’t very difficult, then you don’t have to worry because there’s a version of that increases the difficulty – Ultimate Mastermind. Of course, on the other hand, if you think it might be too hard for your children, then you might want to look at Mastermind for Kids.

How much luck is involved in Mastermind?

There isn’t much luck at all involved in Mastermind – which is why it’s such a good game to teach thinking skills. Sure, getting good hits on your first row of guesses may be up to luck. But once you’ve played that first row, it’s all about doing your personal best to solve the puzzle.

How does Mastermind score on the “Let’s Play Again” meter?

Mastermind gets a very high score on our “Let’s Play Again” meter. It’s such a great game for two players to challenge each other – always trying to see if you can baffle the other player with your color combinations. And since Mastermind doesn’t take too long to play, it always gets played many times in a row. And usually when someone pulls the game out, others start to gather around always calling to play next.

We also enjoy having a copy of Ultimate Mastermind as well so more than one game of Mastermind can be going on at the same time – so no one has to sit around waiting for a turn for very long.

Mastermind is also very easy to find in stores. If you don’t have a copy of Mastermind for your family game shelf, then we highly suggest you run out and grab a copy as soon as you can.

Other family board games you might like: