SNAP Review – Bear in Mind

We all know memory games are great for little kids – but they can be great for adults, too. Exercising our memories can help us remember where we put our car keys… and where we put our wallets…

Phone? Where I put my phone.

…and where we put our phones!

This week, we’re going to talk about a memory game that has an unlikely theme – animals telling their friend Bobby Bear what they did while he was hibernating! This is a SNAP review for Bear in Mind.

Game

Bear in Mind is a memory and story-telling game by none other than Reiner Knizia. It’s for 2-5 players ages 4-99 (I guess?) and plays in about 15 minutes.

It’s published by Chip Theory Games as part of their new line of kids games (see our reviews of Octo Grabbo and Woodland Rush).

Art

Let’s talk about the art in this game.

There are two main components here, the story boards and the image tiles. Both are very thick cardboard with a nice linen finish. I wouldn’t be worried about little hands bending these out of shape, and they seem sturdy enough to withstand sticky fingers.

But getting your kiddos into the habit of washing their hands before playing games is not a bad thing.

The story boards have pictures of full scenes: one or more animal friends in a fleshed out setting, whether that’s a cafe, a ski slope, or a beach. These would make great illustrations for a children’s book, but each one only pictures one MOMENT in a possible story, and none of them are connected in any way to each other. They’re double-sided, and it doesn’t matter which side gets placed facing up on the table.

The image tiles have a front and back side. On the front side, each tile pictures ONE specific item or animal friend, on a plain background.

And don’t forget this cute wooden Bobby Bear. He’s chunky and easy to hold, perfect for little hands… or big hands – along with this wooden die.

Mechanics

That’s all the components that are in the box for Bear in Mind. Let’s talk about the mechanics and how we play this game.

Start by setting up the game. Put out the story boards side by side in any order, making a 10-space playing board. Then select a number of tiles randomly – 15 for a short game, 20 for a medium game, or 25 for a long game – and put the stack of them face-down where everyone can reach them. Set Bobby Bear and the die aside for now.

The youngest player goes first.

On their turn, they draw an image tile and show it to everyone. Then they place it face up next to one of the pictures on the story board. And now they tell a story – out loud – that involves both the image and the picture that it’s next to. Lastly, they turn the tile face down.

Now it’s the next player’s turn, and they draw a new tile and place it on any of the pictures that doesn’t have a tile yet, then tell a story and flip it face down.

Once there is a tile next to every picture, it’s time for Bobby Bear! The oldest player puts Bobby on any of the ten pictures. The next player takes their turn by rolling the die and moving Bobby that many pictures, clockwise. Then they have to remember what image is on the face-down tile for the picture where Bobby is standing.

Tell the story about that image again, then turn the tile face up. Were you right? If you remembered the image correctly, take the tile and put it in your score pile. If there are tiles left in the draw pile, draw a new one and make up a story that connects this new image to this same location.

If you got the item wrong, turn the tile face-down again.

Players continue to take turns, even after the draw pile runs out. When Bobby lands on an empty space, the game ends, and the player with the most tiles is the winner.

Expectations

So what did we expect about this game?

I expected a memory game that would be great for younger kids, but that’s about it. Memory games aren’t usually much fun for adults. On the other hand, I’ve enjoyed a lot of games designed by Reiner Knizia – even some of his kids games – so I did have some hope that this would work for everyone in the family.

And like the other Chip Theory Kids games we’ve played, I expected everything in this box would be high quality and ready for little hands.

For me, I expected this to feel like Rory’s Story Cubes. If you don’t know what they are, they’re dice with images on them, you roll them, and you tell a story based on the images you get – which is kind of like this.

Surprises

And what surprised us?

My number one surprise is that I enjoyed playing this kids game, even without any kids! It’s not earth-shattering, there’s no giant strategy here. It was just nice to make up stories and test my memory.

After we played, I realized that this is a game that scales BEAUTIFULLY to different player counts and a wide range of ages. Young kids will simply try to remember which item went where, and maybe describe the scene – in their very literal way. By middle-elementary age, they’ll be starting to make up stories that make sense.

“Oh! Rhino and Hippo… they argued about their soccer rules and they needed a rulebook.”

And older kids can use this game to create an entire narrative that has a coherent story arc across multiple item tiles.

As with many of the best games for young kids, Bear in Mind could also be played cooperatively or even solo – making up stories and testing memory skills. Since this isn’t a MATCHING game, there’s a ton of room for creativity. There’s not a lot of tension here, it’s just… pleasant.

And that’s something that didn’t really surprise me when I thought about it, but I also didn’t really expect it out of the box for some reason – Bear in Mind has enough scaffolding on it to kind of feel like a board game, but really it’s just loose rungs on which to hang your creativity. It gives you a little bit more than the Story Cubes I mentioned before, and it builds on itself, so you get the feeling of coming back to a comfortable story for another episode.

It also can have some silliness in it, too. If you’ve ever played one of those games where one person has to finish the sentence another person started, you can get a little bit of that here.

“Owl went to read a book about Amazon hats.”

Kind of makes it disjointed, but connected – and that storytelling can be really fun.

Recommended!

Anitra, would we recommend Bear in Mind?

I think this is a great step up from traditional memory matching games. The storytelling aspect is a nice twist, and when everyone feels invested in the stories, it actually makes it easier to remember what item was placed where. Chip Theory even has resources and suggestions on their website for how to use this game to support English or foreign-language curriculum at any level from K-12.

I would whole-heartedly recommend this for kids. I think adults won’t be immediately grabbed by it to play with each other. Although we played it with each other! But for parents and grandparents, this is a game that will be easy to say “yes” to when your kids ask to play.

We rate Bear in Mind 4½ stories out of 5 for kids.

And that’s Bear in Mind, in a SNAP!

Ask for it at your local game store, toy store, or get it directly from Chip Theory Games.

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The Family Gamers received a copy of Bear in Mind from Chip Theory Games 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?