Mind Space Board Game Review – Allplay Series

We are at it yet again with another Allplay board game review, and this is my most anticipated of the batch that Allplay sent over for us to look at. My wife and I love a good roll/flip and write game, and we also love games that utilize polyominoes. This can be ones you draw or ones you place – in this case, you’re drawing. We are taking a look at Mind Space!

In Mind Space, players will be using different colour markers to draw on their dry erase boards. What they draw, an what colour they use, will be determined by the 5 faceup, and 1 face down cards on the table, as well as the dice that were rolled. Each card in the game is a unique shape, and you will need to draw one shape per round – in most situations – that is 1) adjacent to a shape already played, but 2) not adjacent to a shape of the same colour.

You begin the game with a facedown deck of cards, 5 face-up cards and one facedown cards, slotted 1-5 and then 6. At the start of each round, one player rolls the 5 coloured dice and place them below the right card. For example, all 1’s rolled go under the first faceup card, all 4’s rolled go under the 4th faceup card, and all 6’s rolled would go under the final face down card. Then, players look at cards that have a coloured die underneath, and choose that colour (or one colour if multiple) and draw the shape on their board. Once everyone has drawn a shape, the cards all shift down, with the card in the five slot being turned down and placed into the 6 slot, and a new card being drawn from the deck to fill the ultimately unoccupied 1 slot.

After 12 rounds, the game ends. Scoring in Mind Space is what makes this game so difficult. You want to make sure you have at least one blue square in every section on your board, otherwise you might lose points. You also want to put purple squares next to orange squares, and have shapes matching your pink shapes to score big points. To write it out would be rather confusing, but be aware that this game is all about perfect shape placement to maximize potential points.

We absolutely LOVED Mind Space, and although it’s a lot to wrap your mind around – pun intended here – those that do it well will get that rare satisfaction that sometimes you don’t get in a board game. Doing a great job of placing your shapes is a lot of mental work, but the reward is so satisfying.

There is a lot of replayability here as well. Although there are less than 20 total shapes in the game, which shapes come up when and what colors they might be are always changing. It’s also a fairly simple game to understand, so even though there are complex decisions to be made, anyone can play and you’ll be taught and played within 30 minutes. It’s the perfect “end of board game night” kinda game, which is what I’ve always needed more of. There are also 3 goal cards that players can work towards, and those come from a small pile so you will be refreshing those each game as well.

Overall, Mind Space is a fantastic, difficult to master game. If you enjoy roll/flip and writes, there is a lot to love about this one. My only small complaint is that I wish Allplay included reusable micro wipes in the box to erase boards as opposed to using the eraser on the end of the markers. Those get dirty VERY quickly.

Still, the highest of recommendations from us here at GamesReviews.com! Game is available on amazon.