Brain Challenge 3: Think Again!

The brain is one hell of a complex organ. In fact, it recently took over 4,000 processors to simulate just half a mouse’s brain, at a tenth of the speed and for only ten seconds. Yikes.

So if it would take millions of processors to even begin to simulate a human brain, why are all the brain-training games so obsessed with simple sums? Surely we can handle more than that?

According to Brain Challenge 3, it’s mainly due to the fact that we only use 10 per cent of our brains, the rest of our awesome computing power left untapped. This is a load of old nonsense of course, but to be fair Brain Challenge 3 doesn’t pretend it’s a brain-expanding serious game like other competitors.

Instead, what you get is 35 different mini-games to test your grey matter against, ranging from logic puzzles to visual stimuli.

35 is a lot, more than any other brain trainer that springs to mind. Technically, some do repeat in both the Stress and the sort-of new Visual sections, but usually with a minor variation to keep them fresh.

This wouldn’t mean much if all the games consisted purely of dull maths questions. Well, there are some of those, but because every question is presented with bright, clear graphics, even basic arithmetic looks relatively interesting.

The majority of the games are a combination of originals, derivatives from other brain-training titles and returning favourites like the annoying ‘bubble’ game that penalises you for being too slow and too fast.

They are in general good fun to play, although a few are a little too limited. Push Over is a really good domino puzzle but appears to have a total of four combinations, for instance, but overall there’s enough variety to keep up interest and not feel like work either.

Most begin at an insultingly easy level, asking you to remember that one squirrel ran across the screen for example. As the difficulty ramps up they become a decent challenge, especially as the speed of your answer is factored into the resulting grade.

The results from the tests are kept very neatly on a range of excellent graphs and stat screens, tracking your progress over time and feeding the white-coated scientist lady from the menu screens information about what you’re rubbish at behind your back.

It’s slightly frustrating how long it takes to load each of the games, especially considering how short they are, but it’s a relatively small price to pay for a game this well executed and presented.

Overall, Brain Challenge 3: Think Again! is a fine take on the brain training mini-genre because it remembers to make proceedings engaging and interesting.

While the prerequisite maths challenges are alive and well, the diverse and genuinely appealing game types manage to outweigh the more tired and derivative examples.