Mind-Meld Double Feature!

First up, THE MIND is a cooperative mind-reading game. Yes, you heard that right and it’s exactly how you’ll feel when you play this game. It’s very simple: at any time a player can play a card from their hand into the middle, it just has to be a higher number than the previous played card. That’s it. Just play until all the cards are played in ascending order.

BUT - of course you can’t tell anyone what cards you have. Actually, you aren’t allowed to communicate in any way, you play in total silence. You just have to read your friends’ minds. If you mess up the order (the cards are 1 to 100) then you lose one of your precious lives.

I know, it doesn’t sound like a game, but once it clicks you feel like a psychic.

HANABI is an overlooked classic. Mate, if you think the Dark Souls Board Game is hard, I think you need to go back and play some Hanabi.

This is another cooperative card game with a simple premise. Just play the cards in ascending order into their corresponding colour. But the gimmick with this game is you hold your hands facing outwards so everyone BUT YOU can see your cards.

Each turn you can either play a card or give another player a clue about a card they are holding. BUT you can only tell them the number OR the colour, not both. Time is limited too, so you’re always under pressure to play cards (these rockets are not going to launch themselves).

When it comes time to play one of the cards from your hand (which, remember, you cannot see what is) it’s always an incredible moment of tension as you reach for it. Smiling at your friends, gritting your teeth, you grab a card from your hand and tentatively play it…. Is it the card you think it is???

I like to imagine, if you mess up in Hanabi, it's because you’ve just taken a match to the entire crate of fireworks. It probably looks great no matter what.

-Steven