The Mind

But, let’s begin at the beginning. The sport is really simply: there’s a deck of cards numbered 1 to 100, every player is dealt with a certain number randomly in the deck, there isn’t any turn order and everyone plays when they think the time is right, without co-ordinating with each other, and as long as all cards have been played ascending order everyone wins. That’s pretty much all there’s to it. Sounds easy enough — but it is actually really hard — and that’s what makes this game so interesting in my view, as it creates a new gameplay mechanism I have never come across before.

So let us assume we’ve got a three player game of The Head facing us. We all put our hands together in the middle to indicate we are prepared — and then… well… everyone waits. Nobody is really sure if their card is high or low or somewhere in the center. Nobody is going to be lower compared to that. Similarly, in case you’ve got a 100 card, then you may just wait, since yours is the maximum card and will have to be played last.

Yet the odds are that you have a 17, or even a 3131 maybe a 64. Others might have a 25, or even a 44, or maybe a 86. So you must wait and see if anyone is keener to play their card than you are — and expect that if they do perform with their card, it’s indeed lower than yours. However, don’t worry too much. You only lose the match entirely when you lose your last life.

So lSo,’s assume everyone played the cards order — 17, then 25, then 86. That feels great and you wish to do it . So to level 2 you go — and now everyone is dealt two cards from the shuffled deck. You might be lucky and have two cards close together, let’s say 7 and 5. So after everybody has set their hands in the center, you are feeling brave and perform with your 5, quickly followed by your 7. You just got rid of your hands and now the pressure is on everybody else to get their cards played properly.

But, unfortunately another player had a 6. The chances are so low of the happening, which you never anticipated. So you lose another life and you are down to 2. Another player discards their 6 and therefore are left with a single card. They wait, because they have an 86 in their hand, and the third player plays their cardsa 3434en they wait patiently for a bit, then they play a 85. Wow, how awesome. The 86 is performed and you live level 2.

So it goes , with each new level your hand grows by a different card. The pressure climbs all the time, but so does the sense of achievement when all cards are played correctly. There are moments when you start looking into another players eyes hoping to judge whether their second card is higher or lower than yours. Or two players both start to pull their second lowest card out of theithere, then both stop, since they need to pick whose card is reduced.

As I say, the game is actually easy, but it generates so much interest. You truly feel the strain of getting into a rhythm with your staff, and you feel very amazed when gamers play cards properly that are close together: a 76, followed with a 78 followed by a 8181e more you perform, the further you get into it all. It all becomes very addictive.

The Mind is really worth looking at. It is a little game in a small cost that packs a huge punch — and gets your mind frazzled.