Review: Brain Genius

Score:
74%

Author: Glu

Now look, Nokia, when we said we thought you should put more software in your Download! catalogs, we didn't mean you to go out and dig up old Java games - we intended you to check out and add some of the quality commercial applications written specifically for S60. Even trial versions would do. And how come most titles are listed in one device's Download! and not others? The current situation is both crazy and frustrating, in equal measures. Sigh.

Having said that, Brain Genius is one of the best Java games of 2007 and I have no quibbles about it being now available (patchily) in Download! But how has it been implemented and how does it play? The modern (and slightly worrying, to many) trend towards software being a service rather than an outright sale has been given a significant nod here, with an integrated license manager that allows access to the game on a daily (50p per day), monthly (£2) or outright (£5) basis.

It's tempting to get annoyed by the worry that your month's use is about to expire, but this is simply a question of memory. More potentially annoying is the fact that the purchase price is taken off your prepay balance (or added onto your contract bill). So you can't then install the same game (for free) onto your next handset, or even re-install it after a firmware upgrade. In Brain Genius' defense, the prices involved are quite small. I'd recommend taking the monthly option, as 30 days of daily exercises should both sharpen your brain power up nicely and also get you into 'start to get bored' territory. For which £2 is quite reasonable, I feel.

As you might have surmised, Brain Genius is firmly in the vein of More Brain Training on the Nintendo DS, relying on strictly supervised daily mental exercises to stimulate your grey matter in four separate ways: Visual, Memory, Calculation and Logic. Personally, I'm of the opinion that any smartphone owner (and certainly every AAS reader) is likely to have a busy enough life to keep their brain stimulated perfectly well without resorting to artificial brain games, but each to his or her own. And for someone with lots of travelling time, this is at least more accessible than The Times crossword.

Brain Genius is consummately programmed, it has to be said. Apart from a few seconds lag when launched (while the Java runtime grinds into action), you'd be hard pressed to tell that this game wasn't created natively for S60. Animations, sound effects and transitions are uniformly smooth and crisp, and the graphics are custom-made for QVGA.

The exercises and puzzles themselves are also well done, with most of them being original to Brain Genius (I especially liked the spider web one), even if they're all ultimately quite easy in the grand scheme of things - in all honesty you'd stretch your brain more by reading and trying to understand a Stephen Hawking book, for example.

The hardest puzzles are those to do with patterns and memory - but maybe that's just me getting old. The daily exercise regime is policed by the game, with your profile's rating gradually being upped and the difficulty level of the game rising ('Junior' is the default and easiest of the three levels). There's also the option to swap exercises once a day, so that you can gradually fine tune Brain Genius to present the games you find most fun and useful. Good thinking(!).

Two bonus number games (Sudoku and Kakuro) are welcome and also helpful in staying alert and stimulated on journeys. The way new exercises/games get unlocked, the way your rating gradually rises and the difficulty level gets ramped up, all ensure that you won't get tired of Brain Genius on day one, making the 50p entrance fee more of a 'try it' shareware fee. By the end of the month, you'll either be addicted, a bit bored or the sharpest nail in the toolbox!

Steve Litchfield, 4 April 2008

Reviewed by Steve Litchfield at 12:29 UTC, April 2nd 2008