Mensa Recommended Games
In addition to the five Mensa Select® winners chosen each year, our Mensa judges also designate a category of games “Recommended for Play.”
By using the “Recommended by American Mensa” label, a manufacturer signals that its game, while not a top-five pick, was still identified by Mensa member judges as one they enjoyed playing and worth recommending to others. The “Recommended by American Mensa” designation was introduced at Mind Games 2013 and has been a part every year since. Each year, 10-15 games are recognized by our judges as “Recommended by American Mensa.”
Abandon All Artichokes
Recommended for Play 2021
Manufacturer:
Gamewright
Players: 2–4
Age Range: All Ages
This isn’t your garden-variety card game! A bumper-crop of prickly produce has overtaken your patch, and there’s only one choice: abandon all artichokes! Prune your deck by harvesting fresh vegetables, each with a special power that lets you swap, discard, or compost cards. You’ll need luck, strategy, and a green thumb to grow a winning hand!
Animal Kingdoms
Recommended for Play 2021
Manufacturer:
Galactic Raptor Games
Players: 2–4
Age Range: 13+
In Animal Kingdoms, each player takes on the role of a house leader, battling to gain control of the five kingdoms. Cards in your hand represent noble beasts that have pledged their allegiance to you. Over the course of three ages, you must deploy your beasts to the various territories – making sure that you adhere to each kingdom’s decree – to try and improve your influential position in the kingdoms. The house that gains the most influence by the end of the third age is declared the one true leader of the realm.
COAL
Recommended for Play 2021
Manufacturer:
PDG Games
Players: 2–4
Age Range: All Ages
A “back-to-basics” tiling game. Add tiles to the grid so that every line consists of tiles which are either all the same or all different. That’s it. Then score your turn. As the grid expands, the plot thickens and things can get surprisingly intriguing. High score wins.
Cross Clues
Recommended for Play 2021
Manufacturer:
Blue Orange Games
Players: 4–6
Age Range: All Ages
Cross Clues is a cooperative party game about making connections between clues. Work together to fill in the grid of code words by giving single word clues that represent the crossing of two different code words in the grid. Consider your clues carefully and think as a team to fill in as much of the grid as possible! Thousands of different combinations guarantee endless fun!
Crossed Words
Recommended for Play 2021
Manufacturer:
Indie Boards and Cards
Players: 4–6
Age Range: 13+
This is Crossed Words, the brain-bending party game of crazy categories and wackier words!
Dragomino
Recommended for Play 2021
Manufacturer:
Blue Orange Games
Players: 2–4
Age Range: All Ages
Dragomino is the children's version of Kingdomino designed by Bruno Cathala and Marie et Wilfried Fort and illustrated by Maëva Da Silva and Christine Deschamps. Players build their 'kingdom' and as they match different landscapes they try to collect as many eggs as possible! How to play? Explore new lands in search of fabulous dragons! 1- Pick a domino to add to your kingdom. 2- Try to match it to the dominoes already in play. 3- Each matching dominoes scores one egg... which is either empty or has a baby dragon inside! Who will find the most baby dragons?
Dragonrealm
Recommended for Play 2021
Manufacturer:
Gamewright
Players: 2–4
Age Range: All Ages
A Game of Goblins and Gold - Dare to venture beyond Dragonwood! Collect sets of adventurer cards in order to roll dice, which you will use to explore the mystical lands of Dragonrealm. Sneak into the Witch’s Cabin, search the Ogre’s Treehouse, or storm the Isle of Dragons! Place the majority of adventurers on a location to claim its treasure. But beware of meddling goblins, who pop up to snatch the spoils! Gather the most gold and become ruler of the realm!
Grimm, A Card Game
Recommended for Play 2021
Manufacturer:
Park and Parade
Players: 2–4
Age Range: All Ages
Grimm, A Card Game is a fairy tale themed game in the artwork style of Arthur Rackham and game play influenced by game-theory derived at Princeton in the 1930s
Ice Tumble
Recommended for Play 2021
Manufacturer:
SimplyFun
Players: 2–4
Age Range: All Ages
Players need a steady hand to create unique three-dimensional sculptures in this fun, tactile, spatial reasoning and fine motor skills game. Add your piece to the structure without any pieces falling — balancing stunts and interlocking ice blocks are encouraged! Ice Tumble allows you to test physics without being constrained linearly, and practice your risk management skills. Have fun placing blocks to make it difficult for opponents, but watch out because it all might come tumbling down when it’s your turn.
Irish Gauge
Recommended for Play 2021
Manufacturer:
Capstone Games
Players: 4–6
Age Range: 13+
On your turn, you may either auction a share of one of five companies, build railway track in one of these companies, upgrade a town to a city, or request dividends to be paid. Upgrading towns and requesting dividends affect the length of the game as well as the likelihood of companies paying dividends in the future. At the end of the game, the player with the most money plus stock value wins!
Lanterns Dice
Recommended for Play 2021
Manufacturer:
Renegade Game Studios
Players: 2–4
Age Range: All Ages
This is a roll and write game where players will roll dice and fill in corresponding colors on their player sheet to try to score the most points in this fixed-turn-length game.
Periodic: A Game of The Elements
Recommended for Play 2021
Manufacturer:
Genius Games
Players: 2–4
Age Range: All Ages
Periodic: A Game of The Elements is a strategy board game designed around the periodic table of elements, as well as some of the most fundamental principles in chemistry that can be derived from the structure and function of the periodic table. Players maneuver across the periodic table to collect elements to score Goal Cards, and land on element groups to score points. Players either pay energy to use multiple periodic trends to move across the table, or select just one trend and collect all the energy payed to that trend!
Quantik
Recommended for Play 2021
Manufacturer:
Gigamic
Players: 2
Age Range: All Ages
The goal is to be the first player to pose the fourth different forms of a line, a column or a square zone
Raft & Scupper
Recommended for Play 2021
Manufacturer:
Et Games
Players: 2
Age Range: 13+
Two pirate crews battle for domination of the seas by rafting together all the ships of their preferred rigging type or colour, or failing that to sink four ships while their opponent sinks none.
Raids
Recommended for Play 2021
Manufacturer:
IELLO USA
Players: 2–4
Age Range: All Ages
In RAIDS, you must build the stoutest Longship and gather the bravest Viking crew, then set sail to discover the world... Battle horrible monsters, collect and trade valuable goods, and be ready to do whatever is necessary to acquire golden riches and bring glory upon your name!
Recycle Rally
Recommended for Play 2021
Manufacturer:
Adventerra Games North America
Players: 2–4
Age Range: All Ages
Drive recycling trucks around town and maximize your score by collecting higher-value materials. If too many recyclables are left behind, useful stuff is incinerated and the whole town is in trouble.
Ripple Rush
Recommended for Play 2021
Manufacturer:
Stronghold Games
Players: 2–4
Age Range: 13+
Ripple Rush is a flip-and-write game. You draw a card with a number and a color on it. You then write the number in the column of the same color on your sheet.
Second Chance
Recommended for Play 2021
Manufacturer:
Stronghold Games
Players: 4–6
Age Range: 13+
In Second Chance, each player starts with a 9×9 grid that they want to fill as completely as possible. To begin the game, everyone receives a different card with a starting tile and marks off its spaces on their grid.
Starlink
Recommended for Play 2021
Manufacturer:
Blue Orange Games
Players: 4–6
Age Range: All Ages
It's time to create your very own constellations by connecting the stars together in the night sky. Starlink is a drawing party game that take's it's inspiration from the stars in the sky. On your turn, you must try to represent a secret word by drawing straight lines between the stars on the board, and then hope that the other players can guess your intent.
Super Powered Smash Masters
Recommended for Play 2021
Manufacturer:
Dark Unicorn Games
Players: 2–4
Age Range: All Ages
Super Powered Smash Masters™ The fast-paced, tongue-in-cheek, superhero-themed, customizable card game you can play with your whole family! It’s crammed full of humor, amazing heroes, bizarro story twists, and dangerous puns.
The Stars Align
Recommended for Play 2021
Manufacturer:
Breaking Games
Players: 2
Age Range: All Ages
Be the first player to spot five shooting stars for the win! The Stars Align is a two-player game of placing and manipulating patterns of stars on a 7x7 night sky map grid.
Trekking the National Parks Trivia
Recommended for Play 2021
Manufacturer:
Underdog Games
Players: 4–6
Age Range: All Ages
Players are asked educational questions about our country’s national parks. All players secretly write their answers on a whiteboard. The player with the closest answer wins points.
Trinity
Recommended for Play 2021
Manufacturer:
Polaris Games
Players: 2
Age Range: 13+
Trinity is an abstract two player strategy game where you can exercise your tactical expertise and pattern recognition skills to capture your opponent. The game is designed to be compact, yet engaging for ease-of-travel and enjoying downtime during your adventures.
Tumblemaze
Recommended for Play 2021
Manufacturer:
Blue Orange Games
Players: 1
Age Range: All Ages
In this solo puzzle powered by gravity and logic, challenge yourself to roll stainless steel balls into specific spots with a minimum of trials, navigating between obstacles and using bonus walls to guide the balls into the right directions!
Wreck Raiders
Recommended for Play 2021
Manufacturer:
Kids Table Board Gaming
Players: 2–4
Age Range: All Ages
Recover exotic treasures from a seafloor overflowing with pirate shipwrecks. Send your divers to the deep, but be careful; moving too close to other divers lets them get in on the haul too! Gather lost loot and beached baubles to assemble museum exhibits and construct eye-popping aquariums. Wreck Raiders is an innovative dice-drafting worker placement system. Choose a die from the pool, then send one of your divers to any spot on the board with that number. But be warned: the spot you choose will help any diver in the spots next to you, whether they’re friendly or not. Will you risk letting a rival in on your haul to get that treasure you want, or can you find a way to grab yourself some extra loot?