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80 of 82 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Concept good, design bad, June 18, 2002
Durability:3.0 out of 5 stars Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars Educational:4.0 out of 5 stars
Okay, who designs and tests these games?? I don't get it. I also loved Mastermind as a child and bought this one for my 6 year old, figuring it would be easier to learn and play than the 4 peg version. Also it looks really neat in a picture. We opened it up yesterday and she loves it, but it is driving me crazy already. Granted, it is cute, all the pieces are bright colors and of animals, but they are small and they have shallow holes to fit into on the board, so they fall over a lot. A lot! Especially when you have a kid that can't refrain from squirming around for more than 20 seconds. Then, after one falls over, when you try to put it back in its spot, your big fingers knock over their neighbors. Any bump to the board and they all go toppling. Same thing with the red and white pegs. I feel like I am a giant trying to play a little kiddie game. Plus, I really expected it to be harder, more challenging. It took a few rounds for my daughter to get the hang of it, but now the 'secret codes' seem pretty easy to break. There are two different ways they say you can play, and we skipped right over the easy one because it was way too easy. Another minor pet peeve is the little 'cave-like' space you put the hidden color code in. You have to lift that part on and off the board each time you play a game, and in doing so you spill the red and white pegs out of their holder. My daughter always has me lift it off for her as she can't do it gently. AND (I know I am picky, but why don't the designers see these things?) the 'cave-like' space for the secret code gets dark because it is covered, so it is hard to differentiate between colors when you put the pegs in there, the pink, purple and red start to look the same in the cave.
So, if I could go back and do it again, I would just go for the regular Mastermind. In all, my daughter thinks it is great and I like the way it makes her think (flawed logic and all), I just wish it wasn't so clumsy to play though. My rating is high as it is fun (for her), educational and durable because the plastic will last a long time. I just think someone should have seen how unstable the pieces are on the board, and just made it a little more user friendly.
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43 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
You may want to skip this kids' version..., March 18, 2002
Durability:3.0 out of 5 stars Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars Educational:3.0 out of 5 stars
...and go straight to the original Mastermind. I know I wish I had.
We picked this up for our 9yo son, with an eye toward our 6yo & 7yo nephews. I have fond memories of playing Mastermind as a kid and stumping my brother. The original wasn't available at Christmas, so I ordered this for kids who hadn't seen anything like it before. My son figured out his first pattern in 5 rounds. After that, he never went more than 4 rounds (or moves?) without solving it. We took turns playing with him for about an hour. Once we put it up, we never got it back out. It's just too easy. Our nephews (6 & 7) have since played Mastermind, and enjoy it immensely. It's tough for them, but not too tough. So this set won't get much use from them either.
If your child is younger than 8 or new to this type of game, Mastermind for Kids won't hurt. It might be fun. But you'll soon want to move up. The pieces are a little too easy to knock over, but no more than one should expect. As they are small and plentiful, they also seem easy to lose.
If your game collection is small and limited to essentials, skip this one. If it's large, if you like to have the perfect something for any situation, or you just collect games, then go for it.
It's not a bad game, but it's not a must-have, either.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Flawed gameboard design, December 3, 2006
Recently received this for our 5 year old and I really cannot recommend it to anyone. Master Mind is a terrific game concept for developing logic, but this version of the game has a few problems. The most important is that, at the slightest bump of furniture or board, the game pieces do not stay in the shallow indentations on the board. Game over. It's really that simple and pretty much that inevitable. Also the scoring peg tray overflows into the secret code location so that every time one digs out a scoring peg a wave of pegs flood the secret code cave. Other comments: the pegs for scoring and the pegs for color coding are not too different in size, and both come in red. The pink is light purple and there is also another purple - confusing to small kids.
If you know original Master Mind, you'll know there's a 4-peg code, and scoring it is such that the "code breaker" doesn't know *which* of his colored pegs is in the correct spot or the correct color. Kid's MM has 3 peg codes, but the scoring indicats *which* peg is in the correct spot and which is the correct color. Thus after a few plays it is close to impossible for a child who "gets" the trick to not guess in about 3 rounds, and it seems to discourage the logic exercise since the feedback from any old guess will do just as well.
What I'm trying to say is that even if the gameboard were well designed I wouldn't recommend the game for kids over 5. But given the tendency for pieces to fall over, I would send the manufacturers back to the drawing board.
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