Hands on with Brain Quest

It's always satisfying to trick kids into learning. Whether it's a local library holding a summer reading competition for prizes or games packed with maths problems, there's a devilish pleasure to be had in conning a child into gaining useful information. Brain Quest follows in that tradition, bringing knowledge to touch-enabled gaming in good form.

The game comes in two flavours, one geared for third and fourth grade students and a second version aimed at fifth and sixth graders. Obviously, the difficulty of the questions, as well as the subjects included, differs between the two versions. The format of the game remains identical between both, but you can expect more of a challenge from the latter as we discovered to our surprise.

A full suite of modes offers plenty of gameplay options, although only the story mode takes you through a series of quizzes in each subject area. Progressing through the story (a term applied loosely here, as it's really just a sequence of tests) involves answering questions from different personalities. Once you've completed a character's quiz, they tell you who to speak with next. Each character specialises in a particular subject, so as you move forward you entertain a wide range of topics.

With respect to time, we avoided delving too deep into the story mode and opted for a quick action round in the subject of geography. What ensued was a 'collegiate' level debate on the capital cities of obscure nations. Five questions later we had scored a perfect game, much to our dismay. Good thing we performed so well because it gave us valuable points for unlocking customisable items such as backgrounds and stickers.

It's worth noting that the point value of an answer decreases the longer it takes for you to answer a question. Some points are always awarded for a correctly answered question, a move designed specifically to reward youngsters for their effort regardless of how long it takes to reply.

Competitive kids will definitely enjoy the head-to-head quizzes that can be held on a single DS. We'd love to see support for single card play between two handhelds, but it's not planned. Hot swap cooperative question-answering is also planned, allowing two players to take turns completing questions and earning points.

Along with the main quiz game, Brain Quest also packs in three types of sudoku. You can select 4x4, 6x6, and 9x9 grids at three levels of difficulty. Puzzles are generated at random, so there's no operative limit to the number of grids in the game. This is potentially valuable, especially for those unfamiliar with sudoku and want a way of easing into it with smaller puzzles.

Considering the immense value being promised in Brain Quest, we're optimistic about its September release. The randomly-generated sudoku puzzles pack in a lot of gameplay, as do the thousands of questions drafted for the main game. Right now, however, no UK release is planned.