5-Minute Mystery Review: Caught Red-Handed
Intent: Inspire you to try playing 5-Minute Mystery
Have you ever wanted to be a world famous detective, solving crimes and using that brilliant wit? Do you have a keen sense of your surrounding and do you often find shapes in the most bizarre places? Well this game may be for you. 5-Minute Mysteries designed by Connor Reid, splendid art done by Cam Kendell and published by Wiggles 3D is a time-limit, deduction game for for 1-4 players (1-6 for Mastermind Edition) in which you must eliminate the suspects to figure out who stole the MacGuffin!
Overview
Your objective is to solve the mystery of the stolen MacGuffin before it is too late! You will have a set amount of time (ranging from three to nine minutes) to explore various crime scenes featured as beautiful illustrations, find clues, check for matches and rule out suspects to identify the culprit responsible for the crime. The mechanics are fairly straightforward and the gameplay flows quickly. There are various case files ranging in difficulty, and trust me, the difficulty certainly ramps up providing quite a challenge.
First Game Impression
I was a bit nervous for this game as cooperating with limited time can often be stressful, however, the first game was an absolute blast! I did not expect such a smooth game that brought the entire team together. The components and illustrations drew us in, the culprits had personality and codex was a great centre-piece of the game. We delegated tasks under pressure, shouted a bit too loud, and secured the MacGuffin back to the beloved museum curator. We instantly wanted to play again and again… and again.
Thoughts After Seven Games
I adore this game more than I thought I would. The flow is fantastic and teamwork is essential to succeed. The pressure creates a lot of opportunities for laughs, mistakes, frustration and sense of accomplishment (and sometimes failure). The dynamic nature of this game allowed us to really dive in and experience being detectives vowing to find the MacGuffin in time to help the poor museum curator. The poor Walrus just has the worst luck, his museum just keeps getting robbed again and again!
As soon as we finished one case we wanted to try another, the variability in cases allow for a different experience each time and though at times you may not succeed, it is easy to jump in try again yearning for that sense of accomplishment. We surprisingly found winning the game fairly difficult, it was hard to work under pressure not only to find the symbols but to also begin to eliminate the suspects while matching clues. Playing more than twenty cases now, we still haven’t figured out the flow of this game and how to optimize our time and teamwork. I do love a challenge and the blue ribbon games (toughest cases) are certainly beyond our skillset at the moment.
The one thing I’ll note is that we have to be aware and ensure everyone is included as this game is prone to quarterbacking and sometimes can be dominated by those more passionate in the moment. Passing the codex is a fantastic remedy but we did still find some of us more engaged and observant than others sometimes limiting opportunities for involvement.
MERIT Report Card
Overall Letter Grade: B+
Strengths: Quick, accessible and extremely entertaining. The delegation, trust building and observation skills are incredible to see in action and this game does foster fantastic team building opportunities. If you wanted to be an accomplished detective this is certainly your time to shine, and you’ll likely love the experience.
Areas of Improvement: This game needs a large magnifying glass, it is certainly a missed opportunity especially with many individuals huddled around a single illustration. It would be interesting to assign and rotate roles and almost maybe shift them real time? If you play this game, make sure to respect and give each player space to thrive and succeed.
Memorability: B
How often do I think about the game? Honestly, not too often. It’s definitely a fun game and in the moment I am a world class detective solving many cases but I don’t find the experience sticks with me. There’s not much in the game that remains with you following the experience.
How often is the game brought up by the individuals I play with? The individuals we’ve introduced this game loved it, they were keen to keep going and trying new missions and rarely wanted to move on to another game. Great game to start off a games night as it certainly works your brain in many ways.
How many memories can be built from this game? Not too many, people make silly mistakes and there’s moments of last minute success, which feel great but because the game is so short and stakes are not high, the game does not create many memories. We’ve played over twenty cases now, and I can tell you we’ve won some games in the last ten seconds but other than that there weren’t many of the grand moments that I love to see in games.
Education : A-
The most obvious one here is the exercise of your observation skills. Will you be able to find the hidden shapes and communicate them effectively to your team? Observation skills are extremely important in every day life as I know we all have often lost our keys, wallet, pen or pencil and were aghast when confronted with the realization that they were right in front of us. Working your brain to be more observant is a fantastic feature of this game.
There is one distinct element I absolutely love in this game, delegation. As a team under pressure it is necessary to delegate tasks in order to succeed and fulfill each case. Real time delegation is skill often not taught, practiced, or present in board games. Therefore, I am fairly impressed that this game creates an experience where you can practice delegation, get comfortable with it and have that skill shift into your every day life.
Trust building is another element I was fascinated with observing real time, as soon a player makes a mistake you find the rest of the team checking their work to ensure they did not make another. Watching that person slowly rebuild trust is so interesting to me, because it is real time trust building but sped up. I’m certainly looking deeper into this than most but I really enjoy concepts like this and watching them in action.
Replayability: A-
There are countless combinations that will make each experience unique because of the way the game is set up with various culprits, illustrations and case files. The replayability is absolutely fantastic, as the game also scales in difficulty. Depending on who you play with, you can have opportunities for growth with each group.
You do become familiar with the illustrations and symbol location after many playthroughs. At that point, the game shifts to speed, communicating and getting those clues out there as fast as you can. The case files also accommodate replayability because of the varying difficulty. It will take some time to master the mystery. 5-Minute Mystery does have a chance to become monotonous but I do not see that happening any time soon for us.
Imagination: B+
Have you ever wanted to be a detective? This is your opportunity, although with the time limit the theme is slightly lost. It’s almost like watching a summary clip for a mystery movie, you don’t quite get the entire experience. The immersion is often incomplete as players are often not entirely involved because of the varied teamwork and delegation. You get the experience but you’re definitely rushed. Although maybe that’s just me? I often picture detectives taking their time looking meticulously through the crime scenes and often pausing in their own thoughts to reflect; this certainly is not that type of mystery game, it feels more like a Scooby-Doo chase scene where they open various doors and run through all of them in various directions, at times crashing into each other.
I do love the art for all the culprits, they have personality and a story behind each one of them, which you can debate with all the people you play with. What does Bruce do for a living? Could Eric really commit this crime? If you want to dive in further, you can certainly get to know each of the illustrations a little bit better.
Target: B
The Kickstarter campaign was an absolute joy for this game. The videos were intuitive and the explanation really showcased the game to the full degree. 5-Minute Mystery for the most part is exactly what you expect, a fast paced Mystery game for anyone brave enough to find the lost MacGuffin and arrest the culprit. The components and artwork of crime scenes, culprits, and clues are fantastic, pleasing to look at and quite engaging. The game certainly met it’s targets.
Overall, 5-Minute Mystery was better than I thought it would be and because of that I do think there was an element missing in the marketing and presentation. My goal is to encourage more folks to play games, and I think 5-Minute Mystery is a great game for those who love a fast-paced, intense mystery experience. There definitely could have been improvement in marketing this game to more audiences, ages and showcasing that the experience does not necessarily have to be only five minutes but can be an entire caseload, which is not entirely apparent from the game when you first pick it up. =
Tylor’s Stars ⭐⭐⭐
This game is lots of fun, super easy to teach and definitely a crowd pleaser. It is also a lot harder than I initially expected which definitely brought out my competitive side. I personally think it is a great warm up game for anyone who likes to have a longer board game session with multiple games! Also, if you love a high stress timed situation, then pick this one up for your collection!
Although, it is a team effort, the one downfall I had with this game is there can be a sense of being left out if you aren’t able to find the clues as fast as your teammates. It comes back to the concept of if you have the loudest voice, you’re more than likely to become the leading player in the game. With that said, there is other things that you can focus on, like the deduction piece while your team filters through clues, you just have to be open minded and play the role you think fits you best!
Final Thoughts: If you love intensity, pressure and mysteries this game is for you. 5-Minute Mystery does a fantastic job of team-building and creating many opportunities for laughs, tension, joy and a sense of accomplishment. There’s nothing like solving a case in the last three seconds! Make sure you include everyone and focus on strengths of each individual when playing as you want to ensure this experience is not only good for you but everyone around you as well.
MERIT Report Card Letter Grade: B+