The Genius 4 Episode 9 Review

And so, my winner's pick has fallen. ):::

This was a rather good episode I feel, especially after a few weaker ones, though of course not the best one this season. Having the guests interact with the remaining players was rather cool to see who had the social abilities to work with people even outside of the game. Yep yep, Dongmin dominated again... Or should I say dongminated again hahahah >< I also liked how Kyunghoon sounded like Sunggyu when he interacted with Sangmin. O.O

However, I somehow feel like the guests were rather bias in a sense that Ahyoung went with the mindset of making sure Kyunghoon didn't get to win... Not exactly the best decision for guests to just target someone. Also, I wished that more eliminated players this season got to come back and play ): Furthermore, we didn't quite get to see some guests like Jongbum and Doohee do much to shake up the game. 

Alright, now that I have ranted a little about the guests, back to Horror Race II! I liked the slight changes about carrying other pieces and the mud (though the latter didn't make much of a difference). It made it slightly easier for characters with more supporters to still get to move forward a little. It started off with a brilliant move by Hyunmin to have 1 overlapping character with one player each. However, it proved to be a sad drop from there on out as the players kind of saw through him and didn't want to play with him 100%. Junseok had an interesting start to the game with the least number of players sharing the same characters as him, however it also meant that fewer players were supporting his characters... Kyunghoon and Junseok were doing rather well with their white chip, until they were just 2 players who were supporting them full on. 

I will fast forward to Dongmin winning the game with the help of 3/5 returning guests. Once again it just showed us how good of an influencer he is. Even Hyunmin couldn't understand how he got 3 guests and Jinho to back him. Me neither. :/ Looks like Dongmin stands a really good chance of winning, especially if he gets into the final 2. 

Kyunghoon lost and he chose... Junseok. I am upset. I kinda wished that Hyunmin would go to the Deathmatch for once just because he hasn't played. I was really hoping Junseok won but he didn't, so there goes my winner's pick. I really thought he did fantastic this season! :)

Deathmatch was the most awaited Quattro!!! Finally! :D

And they were playing with... players who were quiet and unresponsive? How rude, haha! The social aspect of this game which we all loved in season 2 ep 1 was gone for motionless players that could only swap cards. I thought the change was alright though. Now for a little game talk, I was thinking that the shuffle was a really important one. Kyunghoon got super lucky with three 6's? Wow. Meanwhile, Junseok wasn't too good with his draw. I thought that getting a (few) 0 card/s might be good at first and then if you let it/them out nearer the end, it might be interesting to make your opponent get them. I wished they had more silent players though, 6 players felt too little. 

A roundup after this session, 4 players left: Jinho, Dongmin, Hyunmin, Kyunghoon. 

I am seriously looking forward to how the last few episodes will play out. Also, now that we have come so far this season, the likelihood of seeing a non-winner win this grand final is looking pretty dim. ): I hope to see them win of course, but I guess if Jinho/Dongmin won again, I would be happy nonetheless. 

Next episode! With selected guests playing separated mini games... Looks really interesting and I am looking forward to see how it plays out, seems like Kyunghoon and friend will do well, but it could be misleading.

Crunch time! ;D 

Find me on twitter @raycherr or comment below! 

Cheers & I will see you next week!

Read More

The Genius 4 Episode 8 Review

Harlow everyone, I am back with episode 8, getting pretty empty in the Genius studio yea...

Main match: Minus Auction II
Ooolala another auction game. To be honest, I have yet to re-watch minus action in season 2 and others are telling me that it is a really good episode... >< I WILL watch it soon haha and edit the post after.

But in the meantime, I had a really vague memory of the mainmatch this episode so I re-watched ep 8 with English subs. This also explains why I am uploading my review so late... ):

At its core, this game is about finding the right numbers and getting the sequential ones while earning as many chips as possible. However due to the hidden numbers, luck was involved once again to hinder some players who played by similar strategies used in season 2. Very interesting...
Jinho shined for a little this episode with his smart use of getting 34 to earn as much chips for number 35. Though it didn't last too long, when 32 came out, everyone else were bums and had little chips to last, cancelling out Jinho-Hyunmin's plan to eat up even more chips.
In such a slight change of rules of the game, Kyunghoon was also very smart to change up his strategy to use more chips and bargain with garnets, especially since he had way more than the other players. However, while he stood in a good position to win with the smaller numbers he got, he decided against Junseok's idea for a joint win???!!! I still don't really understand his relationship with Sangmin and the rest of the players. It was a game for him to win and he decided to let that pass. ): He said that he was reminded of Sangmin hyung and couldn't abandon his team?!? What team haha. His team wasn't going to win and suddenly he doesn't want to win too and be one of the possible DM opponent? Was he doing some image control there, hahaha it is really unbelievable how he thinks through the games. Ohwell but he wasn't picked so perhaps he was indeed thinking long term. :/

Finally Kyungran lost due to a hidden 26... How unlucky. :/ And she picked Dongmin to go to the Deathmatch. I was rather surprised by her decision, usually players went for opponents that they thought they could beat, but kudos to her bravery for taking on Dongmin.
Did you guys realised that Kyunghoon actually predicted that Dongmin was most likely to go to the Deathmatch??? O.O
However Dongmin just demonstrated to everyone that not only is he very good socially, he is able to play one on one and win. I was super impressed by how systematic and fast he was. A total all-kill for Dongmin. <3

I wanted to bring up Kyungran's words when she was about to leave. "Her responsibilities as a female player." There were really too few female players in The Genius. Final 5 are all male players. Hopefully they can get some girls who are more bold to be on the future seasons, if any. ^^

Next week we see returning players WOOHOO ... wait... eh most from previous seasons??? ): Haha I am excited to see them again but then... I really wanted returning players from this season. ):
Sangmin's back. (& Kyunghoon is his dog) With Horror race II. ;D

Okay I am excited but there are so few episodes left... ):
Keep up with the excitement with me on twitter @raycherr
Read my other posts on The Genius here too.
Cya next week!

Read More

The Genius 4 Episode 7 Review

Hi! Wow it's already the 7th round and the space looks really pretty empty now. ): I miss all the season 4 players already. 

In Seed Poker, it was really nice to see a political game underneath it's poker exterior. While I would love to play this game myself, I do feel that there could be a little too many variables involved... Plus every time someone wins, he gets at least 7 chips which is a lot, considering the fact that everyone starts with 15 only. 

This time round we saw Jinho try to make an individual move to not stick with Dongmin... Erm, bad idea. We all love Jinho for his brilliant moves in Season 1 where he managed to get the show delicious Genius moments, but in the Seed Poker, it pretty much blew up in his face. With more complex games, and everyone having much ideas and different motions to play the game, the variables are now higher than ever. I thought that perhaps, he (+Kyungran +Hyunmin) got a little too greedy too with trying to get the last 3 points, but then again they could be right to want to make sure that Kyungran won. 

Jinho playing both sides this time was a little suspicious too. Haha, like I never thought that he needed to play with spies on his team to win. To bring in Jungmoon as the spy was even more questionable, but to his credit, it did save his ass life on The Genius after reasoning with  Kyunghoon. :/

Jungmoon sighs, I am just upset with her game play now. She chose to play the dark way again??? Why on Earth did she want to be a spy and betray her alliance members again? After all, she is definitely not the best spy out there and the players suspect her moves pretty frequently too. I wished that she played a more loyal game but it was too late, she was finally picked to play in the Death Match by Kyunghoon, and was eliminated. 

Why Kyunghoon picked Jungmoon instead of Jinho, I am not too sure. :/

Short break: okay, this is a bit creepy after I look at this for a while haha. >< reminds me of Caroline...

They played Same Picture Hunt (still not Quattro :/) and (by luck) Kyunghoon won. I have to say memory-wise, he was pretty on par with Jungmoon in this game but I guess you could say that he got all the right tiles in the right places, like 2 of the same in the row? Woah. 

Hahaha so I have to admit, I am starting to like the Kyunghoon that we are seeing again. The crazy Kyunghoon in episode 1/2 was just not really doing it for me... And... I will also admit that if you ever do read my private posts on season 3, I had like a crush on him in episode 2 then because omg he was like showing so much vulnerabilities... >< Season 4 Ep 1/2 was a turn off but now, I am starting to value him as a worthy player in this game again. :)

I want to mention Junseok too. I believe you guys know that I have picked him as my winner's pick. I do think that he has a fair chance of winning still depending on who is his opponent at the end game. Though, it is hard to see that more people would give the supporting items to him instead of to the other players (e.g Kyungran/Hyunmin).

Thanks for reading! Do tweet me @raycherr or comment below! I really like it when I can engage in a conversation with you guys. Cheers!

Read More

The Genius 4 Episode 6 Review

Ahh this time I am posting late, my apologies. 

Garnet Thief... This episode had one of the more complicated game and game plays to digest, or is it just me? ><

I felt that the editing was also a little lacking this time round but perhaps it is just that there was so much going on, and was hard to fit into the time-slot?? >< 

So let's start with the editing. It mainly centered around Kyunghoon and Jungmoon this time round in terms of shocking reveals during the main match. Jungmoon got the short end of the stick and was, I think, portrayed under a less desirable and respectable light than Kyunghoon... Their games had much parallels with the spy/betrayal and secret codes, interactions with Dongmin and Hyunmin. Jungmoon's edit was somewhat like the edit of how Hyunmin fell in episode 4. Similar, yet lacking. :/ It was really such a pity when her secret signs were misread, and she was just thrown aside. Of course, both of them were sneaky to go off against their own foursome haha. Seems like the "dream team" Dongmin + Hyunmin + Kyungran + Jinho are looking really tight and strong. Kyunghoon is really good at recognising the situation now and he made sure he was the only spy over on the other side. Plus, they managed to end the game in a 5 way tie to win?!? Totally beyond expectations to have a nice ending for this alliance. Back to Kyunghoon, what's up with his suddenly upgraded game play? Haha I love it, but he was so crazy previously, this didn't seem possible anytime soon. The edit for him was really good this episode too, wow. I'm starting to think he faked it all along to build up a "dumber" character so that it will be to his advantage in games like this... 

Also, I was really quite surprised Junseok wasn't one of the players to do something shady in the Mainmatch. I am guessing that he doesn't like to be part of the "dream team" and is okay with working with less popular players/underdogs? 

Moving on to the Deathmatch, Junseok was picked as the elimination candidate. Urgh his bold and direct game play is creating much troubles for him as he becomes the easy target. I declared that my winner's pick is Junseok previously, and I still think so but how he is picking on players like Kyungran is just unnecessary in my opinion. I wonder why he is doing that... Haha. Then he picked Yeonseung as his opponent. Why not Jungmoon? 

So, they played Monorail! Argh when is Quattro going to come out? ): Hahaha it seems like it is never going to get picked even though I keep wishing for it to happen.

I am totally loving the English phrases used between Junseok and Kyunghoon. Leave it! Doesn't matter! Awww so swag hahaha they should totally just form an alliance till the end and use English to strategise since they both studied in the US. Okay sorry that's never going to happen, just a fantasy of an English viewer... haha. 

So monorail was a much shorter game than I expected that ended in 1 move... I was like no no no Yeonseung don't say it can't be completed! But it happened. ): Props to Kyunghoon for the idea too. This season Yeonseung really proved to be a smart and worthy player with his highlight in episode 4 where he outwitted the rest with Junseok by earning the most from selling fishes. I thought that he would go far... Oh man I am so emotionally attached to all the players, it's ridiculous haha. 

So next week looks exciting! >< Jinho and Kyungran finally steps up in the main match!?! I really hope so. The poker game just makes me miss Youhyun... #Stillnotoverhisdefeatinpoker 

And that's all for this review this time round, feel free to tweet me @raycherr or comment below! :) No worries, as long as it's related to The Genius, I don't delete them.
If you feel like reliving this season, you can browse through the previous posts here.

Read More