Hasbro
Mastermind
★★★★☆4.0 / 5 – editorial rating
Crack the secret color code: deduction in its purest form – the logic classic for two.
age 8+2 playersapprox. 20 min.
Logic & planningMemory
How it plays
One player secretly sets a code of four colored pegs. The other guesses attempt by attempt; after each try, black and white pegs reveal how many colors are right and how many sit in the correct position. From this feedback, the code is logically narrowed down – then roles swap.
What it trains
Mastermind schools systematic reasoning: every piece of feedback is information that must be combined with everything learned before – form hypotheses, test them, discard them. The codemaker role challenges too: scoring guesses correctly is concentration work. A quiet, focused duel.
Community voices: Sold by the millions since the 1970s and still the standard recommendation for deduction. Reviews praise the timeless mechanism; modern competitors are more colorful, but rarely clearer.
Our tip for parents: Don't forget to swap roles: inventing the code and giving feedback is brainwork too.
Especially good for
- Logic enthusiasts from 8
- A calm parent-child duel in the evening
- Lovers of true classics
Less suitable for
- Groups – it is strictly a two-player game
- Kids discouraged by many failed attempts
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