I love to play logic / puzzle games and enjoy playing the 62,208 puzzles of The Genius Square – a puzzle game where you roll the dice and try to fill the grid with blocks around the blocking pieces the rolled dice give. I love the challenge of the game but now it is time to try another game from the Genius Collection – The Genius Star.
The Genius Star is like The Genius Square as the idea is to build your game pieces around the blockers to complete the grid and solve the puzzle. But The Genius Star is even more challenging with even more possible puzzles than its predecessor and is played on a 6-pointed star grid rather than a square. And if that on its own isn’t enough, there is a wonderful twist to the challenging puzzles with the addition of a Golden Star.
A game for 1-2 players, aged 8 to adult with a genius level rating of 4/5 lightbulbs (The Genius Square has a level rating of 2/5 lightbulbs) and has a massive 165,888 possible puzzle combinations! And as with The Genius Square, each one of the puzzle combinations ALWAYS has at least one solution.
In the box:
- 2x Genius Star Grids
- 2x Sets of Eleven Coloured Shapes
- 2x Sets of Seven Blocker Pieces (white triangles with a black star)
- 1x Set of Seven Dice (four six-sided dice and three eight-sided dice)
- Instructions
The Genius Star, from The Happy Puzzle Company, is a tabletop game for solo play or 2 player challenges. Played on a star shaped grid that has 48 triangular shapes to place playing pieces. The idea of the game is to roll the dice, place the blockers on the resulting numbers on the grid and try to fill every grid space using your eleven coloured shapes as quickly as possible. For an added challenge, try to complete the grid by assembling and using the Golden Star into your solution (not every puzzle will have a solution that incorporates the Golden Star).
To play the game and beat the challenges, players take a Genius Star grid, a set of eleven coloured shapes and a set of seven blocker pieces. It can be played as a solo challenge or two player challenge. If you are playing as a two player game, the first player to solve the puzzle wins. If playing solo, you might want a stopwatch and maybe a notebook to record your time (so that you have a reference if you want to try to beat your own times). To play, a player rolls the seven dice and then places the seven blocking pieces on the corresponding numbered spaces on the grid. With the grid set, the player(s) need to race to place their eleven shapes onto the board to completely fill the grid. For a harder challenge, players might want to try and incorporate the two light blue pieces that form the Golden Star into their solution – but this is a risky challenge as only 57.4% of the 165,888 possible puzzle combinations have a solution that the Golden Star can be used in.
Overall, I love playing the original game The Golden Square, but I love The Golden Star much more as it is so much more challenging, and the Golden Star adds in another stimulating, exciting element and a bit of extra risk, especially when playing as a two player game and trying to beat your opponent.
The Golden Star is a fantastic puzzle game but is also a challenging STEM game that helps players to develop and hone skill sets such as sequencing, spatial awareness, speed of thought, strategic planning and visual perception. Being able to play as a solo player or race against your family and friends also makes the game much more versatile and expands the fun and playability.
The pieces of the game are great quality. The plastic game board has a grooved grid that prevents the pieces from moving around on the board. The blockers and coloured shapes are a good size to grab, hold and rotate so that you can easily place them on the grid.
The Genius Star is just as fast, frantic and stimulating as its predecessor but with harder puzzles and the added challenge of the Golden Star makes it so much more interesting. I love that it comes with 2 boards and all the pieces so that it can be a fun and competitive game for family game nights, that two players can play separately or together, or you can play in solitude as a single player and challenge yourself.
With just short of 166,000 puzzle combinations, each time that you play you are always going to have a different challenge, and the knowledge that every puzzle has at least one solution means you never have to give up or get frustrated when then is no solution.
Then there is the Golden Star. This doesn’t work in every puzzle combination (about 57% of them). You can challenge yourself by trying to work out if it fits into the puzzle you are playing or if you want to play a puzzle where the Golden Star features, you can visit thegeniusstar.com to enter the dice combination and check if the Golden Star can be used. You can even roll a random dice combination on the website to generate a random puzzle combination that is guaranteed to feature the Golden Star as part of the solution.
Suitable for players from age 8 and upwards, The Genius Star is as much fun for children as it is for teenagers and adults. It is brain-teasing enjoyment for the entire family. And if its predecessor was GENIUS, then The Genius Star is GENIUS DOUBLED!
If you like to play games that challenges your brain, whether for solo or opponent play, then I can highly recommend The Genius Star. It has so many challenges that is will last for years to come.
Rating: 5/5
RRP: £19.99
For more information, visit www.happypuzzle.co.uk. Also available to buy from Amazon here.
