The Genius Square puzzle game has gone down extremely well in our house. We love that it is a logic puzzle game that can be played solo to challenge yourself but also that it comes with a second game board and pieces so that players can challenge and race against each other. Then add in the fact that there are over 62,000 puzzle combinations to go at and solve, it makes it an excellent and challenging game for the entire family. But The Happy Puzzle Company have now gone better and even more challenging with the follow up game – The Genius Star.
The Genius Star is a similar type of puzzle game, having to build your game pieces around the blockers to complete the grid and solve the puzzle. But The Genius Star is even more challenging and has even more possible puzzles than its predecessor. And if that on its own isn’t enough, there is a wonderful twist to each challenging puzzle with the addition of a Golden Star. It is a game for 1-2 players, aged 8 to adult. The Genius Square has a genius level rating of 2/5 lightbulbs, The Genius Star has a genius level rating of 4/5 lightbulbs (More Challenging) and has a massive 165,888 possible puzzle combinations! And as with The Genius Square, each one of the 165,888 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 is a tabletop game played as a 1 or 2 player challenge game 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).
How to play the game is very simple, solving it is a lot harder. Players take a Genius Star grid, a set of eleven coloured shapes and a set of seven blocker pieces. If you are playing as a two player game, the first to solve the puzzle wins, if playing as a solo game 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 numbered spaces on the grid. Now you race begins. The player(s) need to race to place their eleven shapes onto the board to completely fill the grid. For a bigger 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, we have loved The Golden Square in our house, but we love The Golden Star much more – it is so much more challenging, and the Golden Star adds in another challenging element and a bit of extra risk, especially if playing as a two player game and trying to beat your opponent.
The Golden Star is a fantastic challenging STEM game that helps 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 component pieces of the game are very good quality. The game board is made of plastic with a grooved grid that prevents the pieces from moving around 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 and frantic as its predecessor but with harder puzzles and the added bonus 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.
With nearly 166, 000 puzzle combinations players 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. And I love the Golden Star – you can test yourself by trying to work out if it fits into the puzzle you are playing. Or if you want to play a puzzle that you definitely know before play that the Golden Star will work in, 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.
The Genius Square is as much fun for children as it is for teenagers and adults, brain-teasing enjoyment for the entire family. And if its predecessor was GENIUS, then The Genius Star is GENIUS DOUBLED!
If you like a game that challenges your brain to a work-out, then I can highly recommend The Genius Star from The Happy Puzzle Company.
Rating: 5/5
RRP: £19.99
For more information or to buy, visit www.happypuzzle.co.uk. Also available to buy from Amazon here.
Disclosure: I received this item for free for the purposes of writing an honest and impartial review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. This review uses an affiliate link which I may receive a small commission from if you purchase through the link.
