With the recent outburst of interactive games that train your brain day-by-day, it was a no “brainer” that Xbox 360 would receive its own. Gameloft took up the challenge to make Brain Challenge for the Xbox 360.
Brain Challenge consists of daily test that you take to determine your progress throughout the game. You are tested on five main categories that comprise of: Logic, Math, Memory, Visual and Focus, with four fast mini games in each category.
Your intelligence throughout Brain Challenge is measures in percent, 0% having very low intelligence and 100% having very high intelligence. This coincides with the statement that we only use 10% of our brains.
On first play you are given a choice of a male or female doctor who you will be seeing throughout the game. They both give you random questions, that both test luck, general knowledge and a bit of memory. This gives you something to do while navigating around the menus. Getting a question wrong or right does not affect anything.
The way the scoring works is you are first tested on a basic level to get a benchmark of your brain percentage. You then do more tests each day improving your percentage. The system itself is quite poor because it’s made that you just go up and up and up in percentage; if for example you do bad on a test, you stay on your percentage , and if you do very bad (tapping A with your eyes closed) you might move down a percentage or two. Also, the scoring is testing your reflexes rather than your intelligence, by getting a bonus for a fast reaction to the question at hand.
Besides the daily tests, there is a training mode; this helps you prepare for the tests. The training consists of the same five categories with the same mini games you will face in the test, but with the added feature of picking your difficulty level. It is scored on how many you complete correctly giving you a grade from F to A+.
The mini games themself are fun and have a broad range, with many games that have not appeared in other brain games, but also feature classics that have been found in others.
But wait there’s more; Brain Challenge also offers a stress test and training, testing out your stress levels with some mini games from the normal tests that you do, modified to test your stress factor. For example in one mini game for stress, you’re put in the scenario where you have to repeatedly push the right thumb stick around and around, to pedal a bike running away from a van, if the van touches you, you lose a life, whilst doing this on the other side of the screen you have to solve the same questions you would find in the normal test. This becomes very hectic and tests your multitasking along with stress.
Still more.... the game also includes multiplayer online and offline (locally) where you’re able to test your brain against all of your friends in various categories.
The visual aspect of the game is quite good, and matches the bright and spunky sound. Clear signs tell you if you answered wrong or right, and it gives a clear messages to your brain not to get it wrong; it displays a big red ‘X’ matched with the sound, and both the screen and controller vibrate. A feature the game would benefit from would be for the doctors to speak rather than the player having to read the on screen text that is shown.
The game itself is quite fun with many things that I would like to see in other brain games, but the scoring system lets it down somewhat compared to other brain games. It was a first for the Xbox 360, so hopefully we will see more in this market range. I would recommend this to anyone, and everyone as training your brains is very helpful.
This weeks Deal of the Week is now available. Brain Challenge now available for Xbox LIVE Gold Members for 400 points, a savings of 50%.
Brain Challenge just joined the short list of Xbox Live Arcade games that support Avatars
WorthPlaying writes: "Brain Challenge fits into the ever-growing niche of casual puzzle games disguised as self-improvement devices. The game offers a brain training mode, a daily rating/tracking feature, and a stress management mode. Each mode is chock-full of different types of puzzles that fit into primary categories such as focus, logic, math, memory and visual. Likewise, the stress mode likewise uses puzzles in these categories to help you manage stress, but I'll get to that in a moment.
I sat down with a fresh Monster Lo-Carb drink because nothing epitomizes learning and calmness quite like a huge infusion of liquid energy. Brain Challenge starts off innocently enough with a statement that I took as a challenge: "It's said that people only use 10% of their brains. What about you?" I've got to use at least 50 percent, right? And with the Monster drink, that's got to take it up to 55 or 60 percent, easily. I jumped into the initial challenge to check my supercharged brain rating."
