Earlier this quarantine, I promised to feature suggestions of games to play with the family while stuck in isolation. Last time, I reviewed Trivillennial. Though I promise that will not prove to be the last trivia game in the series, this week I’ll profile a game of a different type. It is called What Comes To Mind?
The well-known game “What Comes To Mind?” most closely resembles is Scattergories. Like Scattergories, the object of the game is to come up with a word or phrase when given a prompt. Unlike Scattergories, instead of aiming to conjure a unique answer, you are rewarded based off how many other players you match. Instead of testing your creativity, “What Comes To Mind?” examines how well you know your competitors. That twist makes things a bit more interesting. Furthermore, eliminates the tension that inevitably arises in Scattergories, when someone lobbies for the acceptability of their undoubtedly unique but hare-brained response.
The one problem I have with What Comes To Mind? is with the format of each question card. Each double-sided card features an image on the front and six questions or statements to be answered on the back. The sixth prompt is always “What comes to mind when you look at the image on the other side of this card?” It is a clever idea, but it fails in implementation. Almost always, everyone just names the contents of the picture: “Ferris wheel,” “butterfly,” “squirrel.” The only possibility for amusement is when a player completely misidentifies a commonplace thing and ends up, for example, writing down “parrot” when the photograph depicts a parakeet.
What Comes To Mind? comes with 75 cards, allowing for many nights of family fun. When our long national nightmare is over and done, it will presumably make for an entertaining party game as well.
