Sharon Khan
United Kingdom
Shefford
Bedfordshire
Games, games and more games!
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This is part of a series of reviews of games I've played with my children - for the full list see My children's game reviews - children aged 2, 4 and 6.
I love playing Ingenious on my computer, and my daughter saw me and asked to play, and as she's not usually the one that shows enthusiasm for games, I thought I'd go for it while she was keen and pulled it out, although I was a bit wary about the 10+ age range on the box.
Fun Components  
I don't know why, but the components from this game have always appealed to my children - as soon as the game comes out I have one of my younger children on my lap wanting to draw my tiles for me, and there are no shortage of willing volunteers to pack it away. The bright shapes and colours obviously appeal to kids!
Simplicity of rules
I was worried that the scoring rules would confuse her, but the rules themselves are ever so simple, and although she probably still can't score entirely on her own, she's got the general idea. She also rapidly learnt the rule about exchanging tiles if you don't have your losing colour, and the end-game scoring rules have provided her with no problems.
Randomness
Being an abstract, this is a game which rewards good play, although there is some luck from tile draw - but luckily for my daughter I'm not that good a player! I have won every game, but by not playing cut-throat, I've never won by more than one or two points, so my daughter doesn't feel like I'm way too good to play. My husband however did do incredibly well the one game he played with us, and my daughter looked a bit worried! I did convince my 4 year old son to join in too, and even he got the basic idea rapidly.
Did the child enjoy it? 
My daughter isn't a big games player, yet for a week or two she was asking to play this game over and over again. When school holidays come around, I expect it'll appear some more. Oddly, my 4 year old son, who normally loves any game, hasn't taken to this one though, and only plays under sufference, so it's generally only played when it's just my daughter and I wanting a game, which isn't that common.
And how is it from the adult's point of view?
I am addicted to the computer adaptation of this game, but rarely get to play it in person, as our group isn't a great fan of abstracts, so I'm enjoying having another person to get it out with. In particular it's nice to be able to play proper games - ie ones I'll normally play with other adults - with my children, rather than just the more basic family/kids games.
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Matthew Mesina
United States
Bethel Park
Pennsylvania
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I just played this with a small boy who had to be around 6 at this past weekend's GASPCon In Pittsburgh. He enjoyed shouting "INGENIOUS!" He won too.
My mother, on the other hand, in her 70s, hates it because the scoring mechanism is difficult for her to wrap her head around. She can balance the books for the family business, though, so I'm hoping it's cataracts and not dementia.
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Jamie Scott
United Kingdom
Nottingham
Nottinghamshire
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sa266 wrote: I don't know why, but the components from this game have always appealed to my children - as soon as the game comes out I have one of my younger children on my lap wanting to draw my tiles for me, and there are no shortage of willing volunteers to pack it away. The bright shapes and colours obviously appeal to kids!
We played this game with my four year old and she also seemed to 'connect' with the components. I always assumed that kids wouldn't even entertain a game unless it had some sort of cool theme going on - but this has definitely proved me wrong. With this in mind, we bought Ingenious for our niece's 10th birthday and she's played it every night since 
Great review series by the way.
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Peter Ernest
Indonesia
Jakarta
DKI Jakarta
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May I know which computer adaptation that you use? Does it work with Mac OS?
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Sharon Khan
United Kingdom
Shefford
Bedfordshire
Games, games and more games!
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http://www.marquand.net/staticpages/index.php?page=ingenious
I've no idea if it works on a Mac, but give it a go!
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Jeff Dougan
United States
Urbana
Illinois
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This one's on my list for my column about gaming with kids once I work my way through more of my library's collection. (Starting with the library collection was part of the deal in writing the columns.) Ingenious is one of the few games I've wanted to play immediately a second time on finishing the first game.
(My column, incidentally, runs monthly at www.chambanamoms.com, normally with the tag "Family Game Night.")
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