The Genius Gems Review
Reviewed by Melody
I was delighted to be asked to review The Genius Gems game as a potential gift for Father’s Day. The Genius Gems is a new addition to the Happy Puzzle Company’s “Genius Collection”. These are described as being possibly the cleverest games ever invented and can be played either solo or against an opponent.
The Happy Puzzle Company is a small company who specialise in selling games, puzzles, challenges and puzzle books, they have over 300 to choose from and many have won awards. Their ethos is to promote family play and to develop thinking skills.
We’ve played a couple of other games from the Genius Collection previously and were looking forward to trying out the Genius Gems which looked to be quite a challenge, and a bit different to the other games in the collection. The Genius Gems is suitable for ages 8 years + and is for 1-2 players, it is rated 4 out of 5 on the genius scale so we were expecting a challenge.
As a family we enjoy playing games together, and are always on the lookout for new games. With Father’s Day approaching, I’ll be searching for gifts that are a little bit different to the usual beer, slippers and chocolate and I was interested to see if the Genius Gems would be a hit.
I was impressed with the communication from the Happy Puzzle Company. I had an email to tell me that the game had been dispatched, and then another, a couple of days, later confirming the time that the courier would deliver it.
When the package arrived, I was surprised at how small the box was (it measures 19.5cm x 19.5cm). It turns out that this was because packaging had been kept to a minimum and there was no unnecessary plastic. The game fitted the box pretty much perfectly. This is positive as it means it doesn’t take up too much room in our (already overflowing) games cupboard. The box itself was brightly coloured and very visually appealing.
Inside the box were two plastic Genius Gems grids, two sets of 10 double-sided plastic clusters of gems, 9 dice showing different gem patterns and a shaker. The smaller pieces and dice were in resealable plastic bags which made it easy to keep the pieces together when packed away in the box. There was also an instruction booklet, which had instructions in several languages. I was impressed by the quality of the pieces which felt very sturdy and were brightly coloured.
To start the game five of the dice were rolled inside the shaker, landing in the five coloured wells (the colours correspond to the colours of the gems). These dice determined the patterns that needed to appear within the Gem Grid simultaneously. So, in other words, all of the coloured gem pieces had to be placed in the grids, ensuring that the patterns were all showing in the right colour. The different colour dice determined how difficult the solution would be. We played with the five white dice, which were classed as basic dice so were the easiest patterns to make. To mix it up these could be combined with “dastardly” (black) dice and “Devilish dice” (red) to make it even harder. We haven’t moved onto those yet. You can play either alone or by racing against an opponent to be the first to complete the grid.
The Genius Gems supports STEM learning, so players use several skills including thinking at speed, spatial awareness and visual perception to complete the puzzle. The box says that there are 10,794 possible puzzles and that there is always at least one solution (apparently this has been checked by a computer programme) so this is a game that you could play many times without it being the same.
Whilst I enjoyed playing the Genius Gems game, I did find it challenging and gave up on a few occasions without finding the solution, but I’ll persevere and have enjoyed playing it on my own to challenge myself. It’s quite addictive! Unfortunately, it was a bit too difficult for my children (aged 8 & 11) and my partner, who’s colour blind, really struggled to play as he couldn’t tell the difference between the colours, which was quite a big hinderance!
Overall, I would recommend this game to anyone who wants to challenge themselves. It’s compact, good quality and gripping. I’m sure it would make a great gift for Father’s Day for any non-colour-blind Dads out there!
Rating: 4/5
RRP: £19.99
This product can be purchased from The Happy Puzzle Company here