Mensa Recommended Games
In addition to the seven Mensa Select® winners chosen each year, our Mensa judges also designate a category of games “Recommended for Play.”
By using the “Recommended by American Mensa” label, a manufacturer signals that its game, while not a top-five pick, was still identified by Mensa member judges as one they enjoyed playing and worth recommending to others. The “Recommended by American Mensa” designation was introduced at Mind Games 2013 and has been a part every year since.
If you buy something from a Mensa Mind Games link, American Mensa may earn a commission.
3 Witches
Recommended for Play 2026
Manufacturer:
Allplay/Creator: Corey Young
Players: 2-4
Age Range: 13+
3 Witches is a must-follow, trick-taking game with no trump suit. At the start of each round, players bid on how many tricks they can win (out of five). The highest bidder becomes the Lead Witch, and their opponents play together on a team as Lesser Witches. The Lead Witch plays two cards (one face down), while the two Lesser Witches combine one card each. Two ingredients of the same rank or suit get added together, leading to tricky situations! If the Lead Witch wins exactly the number of tricks that they bid, they receive two fate tokens at the end of the round; if not, each Lesser Witch receives one fate token. The first player to collect five fate tokens wins.
Biathlon Blast
Recommended for Play 2026
Manufacturer:
carlMax ApS/Creators: Lars Max Jensen and Carl Tenland
Players: 4-6
Age Range: 13+
Fast-paced skiing and shooting race for 2–6 players. Ski too fast and your pulse rises, making shots harder. Find the perfect balance to decide the champion.
Cat and the Tower
Recommended for Play 2026
Manufacturer:
Arcane Wonders/Creator: Masakazu Takizawa
Players: 2-4
Age Range: All Ages
Cat and the Tower is a cooperative dexterity game where players work together to build a wobbly tower and help Toto the cat reach the top in search of his mama.
Cats vs Cucumbers
Recommended for Play 2026
Manufacturer:
Envy Born Games/Creators: Ammon Anderson and Melanie Anderson
Players: 2-4
Age Range: All Ages
Roll the dice to move your adorable wooden cats into cozy boxes, collect toys, and feast on tasty treats. But BEWARE ... cucumbers are out to ruin your day! If you roll three, you bust! Collect as many points as you can before your 9 lives are gone!
Centrix
Recommended for Play 2026
Manufacturer:
Centrix Analog Game Studios/Creators: Richard MacRae and Corey Myckan
Players: 4-6
Age Range: All Ages
Centrix is a multi-level, 3D family strategy board game where 2 to 6 players race to be the first to climb all three of their pawns to the top of a rotating, 6-ring concentric board. Players use card combinations to rotate the rings, move, jump over opponents, and bump them down.
Cross Spin
Recommended for Play 2026
Manufacturer:
JoPat Games/Creator: Chris Savino
Players: 4-6
Age Range: 13+
Race to solve bite-sized category based crosswords. Spin the board to unlock new word combinations. Multiple solutions every round. First to 25 is the winner!
Gyges
Recommended for Play 2026
Manufacturer:
Blue Orange Games
Players: 2
Age Range: 8+
Gyges is an elegant, 2-player abstract strategy game where mystical rings move across the board based on their size. Each move offers surprising choices: leap forward to advance your attack or reposition the pieces to block your opponent's plans. Clever chains of moves can propel your rings across the board in unexpected ways. Outsmart your rival and land on their throne to secure victory!
High Tide
Recommended for Play 2026
Manufacturer:
Underdog Games/Creator: Marceline Leiman
Players: 2
Age Range: All Ages
High Tide is a 2-player strategy game where players take turns moving and stacking tiles to cover their opponent's pieces. Each move must raise a tile onto a higher stack while keeping all tiles connected. The round ends when no more moves can be made, and the player with the most visible tiles on top wins the round. The first player to win 3 rounds wins the game.
Logic & Lore
Recommended for Play 2026
Manufacturer:
Weird Giraffe Games
Players: 2
Age Range: 13+
Outthink your rival in this 2-player logic duel with 350+ challenges! Use yes/no clues to reveal relationships and solve the puzzle.
Moon Colony Bloodbath
Recommended for Play 2026
Manufacturer:
Rio Grande Games/Creator: Donald X. Vaccarino
Players: 2-4
Age Range: 13+
Cities on the moon! This will be humanity's crowning achievement. At last, we're no longer bound to Earth. The moon is our stepping stone to the stars. The rockets are loaded with supplies and colonists. The robots are programmed and ready. Everything has been planned down to the tiniest detail, and there is absolutely no chance of failure. To the moon! This is an engine-building, engine-losing tableau game featuring a shared deck that players collectively build. That deck drives the action, triggering events--many of them disastrous enough to kill colonists in your lunar settlement, but others that provide benefits or help you expand your colony. The game ends when either one player's moon colony has no survivors remaining or the players reach the bottom of the Event deck. The player with the most surviving colonists wins.
Parks 2nd Edition
Recommended for Play 2026
Manufacturer:
Keymaster Games/Creator: Henry Audubon
Players: 2-4
Age Range: 13+
Roam every landscape, capture every moment, and experience the splendor of our U.S. National Parks. Lace up your boots. Adventure awaits at every turn.
PocketParks
Recommended for Play 2026
Manufacturer:
PocketParks/Creator: Jason B. Wong
Players: 2-4
Age Range: 13+
U.S. National Parks card game in which players race to complete their collection of national parks. Featuring pattern recognition and set-collection gameplay, it's loosely inspired by Chinese mahjong and rummy.
Poles Apart
Recommended for Play 2026
Manufacturer:
SimplyFun/Creator: Jack Hanauer
Players: 2-4
Age Range: 4 to 10
Place tiles, so when flipped, you match as many animals as possible without letting the puffins and penguins touch! Poles Apart builds spatial reasoning skills through fun, geometric play.
Sanctuary
Recommended for Play 2026
Manufacturer:
Capstone Games/Creator: Mathias Wigge
Players: 2-4
Age Range: 13+
In Sanctuary, you are building a modern, scientifically managed zoo for animals and visitors. To do so, you have 135 unique zoo tiles at your disposal, consisting of animals, buildings, and projects. In each game, you try to place the best mix of tiles on your zoo map from the available options. Different tile effects allow you to achieve your conservation goals and make your zoo more attractive to visitors.
Wine Cellar
Recommended for Play 2026
Manufacturer:
25th Century Games
Players: 4-6
Age Range: All Ages
Let's auction off some wine! You and your rival sommeliers have decided to face off to determine who is the best. Each person will take on a client, building a cellar that ages well and is suited to the client's tastes. Over the course of eight rounds in Wine Cellar, players will collect wine bottles to create a cellar for their client. Bottles will be arranged to create a timeline for the order in which the wine will be consumed. Each bottle is worth different amounts based upon where it is in the timeline. Players will also receive points based on their client's preferences for wine type and country of origin.