Visual Brainstorms
by Myra WolfeLauren's latest entrepreneurial venture is raising Vietnamese pot-belly pigs and ostriches for fun and profit. Among her animals, she has 17 heads and 56 legs in all. How many pigs and how many ostriches does Lauren have?
A set of 100 question cards, Visual Brainstorms is a really tough, really fun, really versatile game that can be played alone, with two players, or in teams. The questions are not easy -- most can't be solved without some serious thinking, often with the aid of a pencil and paper. (Calculators are not allowed.) Some of them are absolutely diabolical. Answers are found on the back of each card, often along with a bonus question.
But there's something for everyone; among other things, players will find word challenges, spatial reasoning problems, math and logic puzzles, mazes, and codes. There are three levels of difficulty: easy, hard, and extra hard.
Players can set the game up in pretty much any way they want. They can choose the number and difficulty level of cards, they can set the time limit, and they can decide how long to keep playing.
I really liked the "free-form play" suggestions printed on the back of the box, especially, "Give a hard one to your teacher when everybody is looking!" There really are limitless ways to have fun with these cards.
Another neat thing about this game is the illustration found on each card. They are often truly hilarious, and players will start to notice the same characters popping up in different goofy situations.
The suggested age range is 11 and up. I played with an eleven-year-old who found it fun, but almost too hard. I'd definitely stick with the "easy" cards for younger players. I really thought "easy" was sometimes a misnomer--some of the questions made my thirty-year-old brain feel like marshmallow fluff.
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