Dirty minds - adult game discontinued by TDC Games Inc - review by Kayla

The Dirty Minds board game is a board game I've been hoping to pick up for awhile now. It's actually one of the board games that EF sells that you can find in most bookstores as well which is always neat. This edition of the Dirty Minds game is "New and Improved" and includes new questions (in case you've played the old version). This game is meant for (optimally) up to four players although the game rules can be modified for more players. The game is intended for players 17 & up. The game includes 100 Game Cards, 4 Puzzle Booklets, 4 Pencils, 4 Game Pieces, two dice, and the game board all included in the nice red and black board game box.

The black and red board game box is relatively strong. It's a pull-off top box, so all of the pieces can be stored really nicely inside of it. When I received mine from EF, it did have a crinkle on one of the corners like it had been squashed a bit, but it really didn't effect the box at all. Inside the box, the board sits on top of the rest of the pieces while they just sit in a giant blob at the bottom.

This game is fairly simple to play. Basically, each player gets a game booklet and is dealt two cards. (The game booklet includes the instructions at the beginning of each booklet which is really helpful because this allows you to start playing the game without really having to sit around and read and explain every rule. Every player can easily reference the rules throughout the game.) From there, every player roles both dice and moves whatever spaces are designated by the dice. The spaces on the board can cause you to lose one of your cards, lose a turn, or perform a Dirty Minds or Dirty Deeds activity.

A Dirty Minds activity is basically three clues that describe an everyday object, but the clues make the object sound like a dirty one. The Dirty Deeds are small "stories" about an object that give you enough clues to guess the object. On a Dirty Deeds turn, you only get the full-story then a chance to guess. On the Dirty Minds turns, the first clue is released, you get to guess, your partners get to guess, then the second clue is released, and etc. with all three clues. Depending on how many clues you need to get the answer is how many Game Cards you will receive.

So what's the point of the game? To use the Game Cards to spell out "DIRTY". Each card has a letter of "DIRTY" on it, a "Lose a Card", a "Draw Two Cards" or "Wild Card". This is where we had a problem with the board game. The first time we played it, the game was over within 3 turns. As in, one player didn't even get to go. The next time, it was over within five. Deciding that it must be a part of the game to end early, we chose to make the requirements to spell "DIRTY" twice - it then took about nine turns to finish the game. All of these games were easily under 10 minutes each in play time. Most of the playthroughs, the game pieces only made it through half of the board - if that. Because of this, it actually felt almost silly to actually use the board because it felt like more of a hassle than a good addition. It took more time to set up and use than it seemed to "add" to the game.

I will say that I think the games ended too quickly because of all of the "Wild Cards" in the deck. If we take them out (or only allow use of one wild card per game), it would take longer. Honestly, we'd end up a lot with the winner having a "R" and then four wildcards. It was the wildcards that seemed to be too numerous in the deck.

I will say that we definitely did not use the Pencils. Each Game Booklet includes a variety of different Dirty Deeds and Dirty Minds questions - each booklet is different. There's enough questions in here to make it through ten or fifteen playthroughs without ever repeating one. There's a little box to check-off when you've read the clues, but we chose not to check them off just to avoid making a mess on the booklets.

For this board game, I'd definitely recommend at least three players. It can be done with two, easily, but it just isn't as fun if there isn't at least another person that you can "pass" the question off to if you can't get the answer. Having another person also makes it a little bit more fun. To add more than 4 players, you can begin to have players share the booklets as well. If you have five players who wish to play, you can also appoint them the permanent reader and give that person all the books to choose from.

I will also mention that we definitely squabbled over the directions to the game a little bit. They seem a little hazy, but honestly, just pick your own way of playing the game and go with it. None of the rules are set in stone. Something I hadn't thought about was replayability as well. If you end up playing it with another set of people, you have already heard some of the clues and have an advantage. For this reason, I'd recommend letting a relatively decent period of time go by before you choose to play the game again - just to get the clues and answers out of your memory. Another option is to consider this a good game to lend out to friends - they will have never played it before.

Overall? We loved the game, and it got lots and lots of giggles out of the four of us. I was about ready to abandon the board game completely because of the short time span of games, but everyone else said the board game was a fun addition. The questions can be pretty fun, sometimes hard, and sometimes easy, but overall, it was amusing to stick our minds to the test and try and stop having such a Dirty Mind.

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Okay, okay. I know you guys want examples of the questions. Fine. (For your information, throughout all four books, there are 288 Dirty Minds questions and 84 Dirty Deeds questions.)

Dirty Minds:
- You shove your plump one in me.
- After you slip me on, you take me to bed.
- I usually come with a partner.
Answer: A (See below)

Dirty Minds:
- I can make your meat hard.
- When you take it out of me, it gets softer.
- I can make your sausage last longer.
Answer: B (See Below)

Dirty Deeds:
- You realized that you had to get a hold of my hard end before I could stroke you properly. But you had to be careful because when I was too stiff, I could rub you raw.
Answer: C (See Below)






Below:
A: Pillowcase B: Freezer C: Hairbrush
(Let me know how well you did. )

Dirty Minds was a really enjoyable game. I've actually brought it out to play it with other guests as well - which is nice since it's not always something I do with most of my games.

After five separate plays, we still haven't managed to make it through all of the questions included in this set, so it looks like this game will be pulled out even more in the future.