SNAP Review – Head Spin

We just watched a whodunit movie this weekend, and we loved it. The puzzles and the logical connections are super fun, and watching the detective lay it all out at the end – it’s enough to make your head spin.

It’s fun to do puzzles too, and, like in that movie, sometimes they do indeed, make your Head Spin.

Game

This is a SNAP review for Head Spin.

Head Spin is a fast-moving puzzle game for two players from Project Genius. It’s best for ages 12 and up and takes about 20 minutes to play.

Art

So, let’s talk about the… art? … in Head Spin.

There are two main elements in this game: the spinners, and the cards.

The spinners look like a multi-colored bike lock, with four rotating columns. Each column has four colors in it: red, purple, yellow, and blue. They’re pretty satisfying to spin, with a slip-and-stick action that kind of reminds me of a Rubik’s cube.

Then there are the cards: They are large and square, and each one has some kind of puzzle on it that uses all four colors.

Cleverly, the cards are double-sided, with the answer to each question on the reverse side of the card, underneath a different puzzle.

Oh, and the box has a slot where you can stand up a card to see the puzzle more clearly. That’s pretty handy.

Mechanics

Let’s talk about the mechanics and how we play Head Spin.

Each player gets a spinner. There’s only two of them in the box, so if you want to play with more people, you going to need to buy the $10 expansion pack which includes two more.

Flip a puzzle card and put it in the box so everyone can see it.

Then, race to solve the puzzle first. Move the wheels on your spinner so the answer row (that’s the one with arrows pointing to it) shows the answer to the puzzle.

Every puzzle solution will contain all four colors.

Whoever thinks they got the answer first, slams their spinner down on this disk that says “first”. When the other player finishes, they place their spinner on the second place landing pad.

Then, it’s time to flip over the puzzle card and check the answer! If the first player got the answer right, they get the card. If they got it wrong and the second place answer is right, the second place player gets the card.

If placing spinners was a tie, or if no one got the right answer, no one wins. Discard the card and try a new one.

Then it’s time to move on to a new puzzle! Whoever solves 10 puzzles first, wins the game.

There are 100 double-sided cards in the box and 10 different kinds of puzzle. The only thing they all have in common is that you’ll be putting the four colors together in some order.

Expectations

What did we expect from Head Spin?

Just looking at the spinning puzzle wheels and the question cards, I expected this to be a brain-stretching, puzzle-y kind of game.

[Anitra] It looked like I would have to get the spinner wheels into a certain orientation to solve each puzzle, but I expected that there would be more challenge in moving the pieces around on the wheels – more like a sliding puzzle.

[Andrew] Again, this is Project Genius. Just like Deblockle, this is a good looking puzzle game. I expected it to be solid gamplay-wise. It doesn’t really have the classic tabletop puzzle feel (like living room table kind of a thing). But it felt good in the hands and the puzzles were clear, so I expected to really like this and play it a lot with our twelve year old.

Surprises

There were some surprises – what surprised us about Head Spin?

[Anitra] I was surprised that the answers were always represented by just a single row on the spinner. It means that (for me) the hard part is figuring out the puzzle, not using the spinner.

There’s quite a variety in puzzles, too. I think my favorite is either Color Confusion, which has color names written over different colored boxes, or Missing Color, which shows four columns, with a color missing from each column.

[Andrew] I think I like the Logic puzzles the best, which give a series of facts, and you need to sort out what the order of the colors actually is, and then you set them into the spinner – as quickly as possible.

[Anitra] I didn’t love this game. I really wish there had been more variety – not in the puzzles themselves – there are ten different kinds of puzzles – but in the solutions to the puzzles. Knowing that every solution would contain every color exactly once felt limiting and made some of the puzzles too easy. Because of this, needing to win ten times felt way too long. I’d cut it down to five or maybe eight wins, which should take less than 15 minutes.

[Andrew] I agree on the ten puzzles feeling too long. For us, we did a best of five or best of seven, and that really helped. While we’re talking about surprises, I’m surprised to hear that each color appears once in the solution, because I did not know that. That explains how you were able to beat me!

Recommended?

Do we recommend Head Spin?

[Anitra] I think Head Spin would make a good – and unexpected – gift for a preteen or teenager who loves puzzley things. They can race their friends and argue over who’s the better solver.

Teenagers don’t argue about stuff like that! No, never!

[Andrew] I think Head Spin is a fun game to play with different generations that may not include kids – Parents and grandparents, teenagers, aunts and uncles, or friends, like you said. It’s a little more toy than game to me, though. And a toy that requires at least two players, which does limit its appeal a little bit.

We’re going to give Head Spin Three Puzzles out of Five.

And that’s Head Spin – in a SNAP!

Find it on Amazon or at your local toy store.

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The Family Gamers received a copy of Head Spin from Project Genius for this review.

This post contains affiliate links, which do not change your price, but help support The Family Gamers.

SNAP review music is Avalanche, provided courtesy of You Bred Raptors?