Review – Brain Assist (DS)

Brain Training, More Brain Training, Big Brain Academy, Brain Challenge, Genius DS , The Professor’s Brain Trainer, Mind Quiz, Brain Buster Pack– and that’s just the Nintendo DS. Screw World War II Shooters; brain busting, cognitive workouts are a dime a dozen in this mainstream gaming, mental agility awareness century.

Brain Assist’s new angle on the subject is the two cerebral hemispheres that make up your noggin’ – the left and right sides of the brain. As an exercise for the right side, Assist offers 10 puzzles that train reflexes, memory and concentration.

It’s a brain buster in itself to understand the incessant sales and overwhelming appeal of these games; the obvious enjoyment comes from testing your brain, seeing your score and comparing with friends. The inherent nature of this “Test your [Brain] Strength” ego boost means the game will stay in your hands for less than 10 minutes and then passed on to see the next person’s brain age, weight, grade or scent.
That doesn’t exactly feel worthy of the price, even at the £19.99 budget point – games aimed at reflexes and concentration are ubiquitous on boredom-fighting free flash sites.

Any extra playthroughs are repetitive and tedious; the slow menus and mind-numbing music doesn’t help. Watching your brain perform feats you never knew possible is always entertaining, plus hard modes and rankings offer reason to return, but none of the games are especially fun – you’re clicking on coloured buttons, watching flashing numbers and spotting differences; if that sounds exciting to you, god forbid should I deter you.

The game’s aesthetics are aimed squarely at very young children – Brain Age, on the other hand, caters to adults with inoffensive shapes and colours, advertised by Chris Tarrant and Nicole Kidman. The demographic is an easier sell with worries of Alzheimer’s and decaying minds in the older generation – kids just want Sonic the Hedgehog on a hover board.

Brain Assist’s juvenility of cartoony nurses and spiralling flowers coupled with cerebral hemisphere information and cognitive ability graphs is a nebulous union and a tough sell to either kids or adults. The entire game falls short of notability or recommendation; in this crowded genre, Brain Assist does little to differentiate itself from the competition.

Rating:
2/4 Bad