Originally published on Board Game Geek.

Colour Brain is a trivia game where the gimmick is every answer is a color (or sometimes several colors). I haven't played the original version, but I suspect the Disney Edition puts the game in its best light.

Trivia games live and die on the quality of the clues. The best thing about the color mechanic is that it works for a variety of ages better than most trivia. Having seen Dumbo as a child puts me at an advantage, of course. But then again my children have been on the Dumbo ride at Disneyland and have a better memory for colors. And even if they don't know the answer, they can make a guess from the the 11 color cards that represent all the possible answers. Pretty clever.

Unfortunately, the items picked are not always the ideal items for testing color trivia. Randall Boggs from Monsters, Inc. is most memorable for having the power to become invisible, so it's a bit hard to remember his color. In addition, his purple bleeds into blue from head to tail. Every card has a screenshot of the item, which prevents second-guessing. Only some of the images don't do a good job highlighting the right color.

The clues sometimes drift into the obscure category: "The aura around Gramma Tala when her spirit re-visits Moana"? "The top side of Jumba Jookiba's arms"? Uh. Ok. The subtitle is "A game all about guessing the color of things", so I suppose it's intentional that some things aren't going to be known. Doesn't seem all that satisfying to me.

Scoring is straightforward: guess right and you get a point for each team that guessed wrong. First to 10 wins. If everyone guesses right, an extra point rolls forward to be won in the next round. We didn't keep track of points, which is typical for when we play trivia with our kids. But this game is random enough everyone should have a chance to win if we score next time.

Finally, there's a color capture card which allows one team to temporarily steal 8 color cards from the leading team. It makes getting the next card right more difficult and the colors go back into their hand afterward. It's a simple way to disrupt a team that's close to winning. We didn't use the card because we didn't do the scoring thing. Seems like a clever idea and not overly frustrating.

Color Brain has the benefit of leveling the playing field between various players, which is a wonderful attribute for parents and children. Otherwise it doesn't have a lot to recommend it.