{tag [Review]} {tag [PC]}

Brighter Minds is at it again, this time teaming up with redSprite Studios to make Brainiversity, a “brain training game that helps stimulate your brain."

Brainiversity includes numerous activities to test your knowledge and skills in the areas of Language, Memory, Math, and Analysis. There is a daily exam to test your knowledge and check your progress, or in some cases, your regression. There is also an area that allows you to practice as many times as you wish so that you can come back the next day and improve upon your scores on the exam.

In the Language area, you complete such activities as “Word Maker” in which you use a given set of letters to make words or “Sort It” where you click on words to put them in alphabetical order. In the Memory part of the game, you may have to memorize and then type as many items from a grocery list that you can remember, or play “Remember Me?” in which you look at images of people and remember his/her name, or test your Visual Memory by remembering different colors and types of 2-D shapes.

The Math section I found to be rather fun! My skills were tested in basic computation such as addition, subtraction, multiplying, and dividing, as well as comparing numbers.

The Analysis part of the game was quite interesting. There were sets of words in different colors, and I would be asked questions such as “How many red words?” or “How many pink E’s?” or even “How many D’s?”

While rated by the ESRB as “E for Everyone”,  I would not recommend the game for children.  I entered the game as myself, a 29-year-old teacher, and found it to be fun and challenging. I then created a profile for a 7-year-old to see how the game might cater to a child.  Sadly, it did not.  Many of the activities played as an adult were repeated when playing as a child.

For example, in the game “Remember Me?”, a seven-year old is expected to do the same challenge an adult faces, namely analyzing a person’s face and recalling their name from memory.  As a teacher, I feel this would be too difficult for children of this age level, since most first graders would have a bit of trouble reading and then finding the names.  Another game I felt was too challenging for younger players involved creating five-letter words using a given beginning and ending letter, such as A and S.  Many seven-year-olds would simply type “as,” rather than a word with five letters.

Aside from an unclear target audience, the one annoying aspect of the game is the game’s guide, “Edison”.   Edison is a light bulb (clever idea) that leads you through the game and instructs the player on how to complete each of the activities.  However, Edison does not talk; instead he makes a funny, rather annoying sound, as he “reads” the directions on the screen.  Again, this is something else that makes the game difficult for children, and simply a nuisance for adults.

Overall, Brainiversity is a fun, challenging way for adults and older children (at least middle school age), to keep their minds active as they age.  It has many different activities to test skills, and it presents stamps as rewards. Yes, even adults will want to earn these stamps for a job well done to prove their intelligence to all their friends and family!  The game can become quite addicting as you try to outdo yourself time and time again.