Usually fun and functionality do not run hand in hand. But the new Brain Challenge (DS) brain game has made this possible to some extent. It is a third party brain training game that puts your brain to the test in a wide variety of challenges. For starters, Brain Challenge has a Stress Training mode where you can play one or multiple brain tests while undergoing stressors at the same time. The brain game from Ubisoft Entertainment also offers unlockable bonus modes . These extra games help in promoting creativity and relaxation.

Brain Challenge offers five mini games to the players, each measuring an aspect of cognition: Logic, Math, Memory, Visual and Focus. The player is given a percentage at the end based on their performance. In addition to the things that you may have already seen in other brain games, the Brain Challenge (DS) brain game also includes some newer stuff. There are more than 30 games lying between the multiple modes. Most of which show up in the test, but it will take a number of weeks for the player to unlock them all in the training modes.

The most important aspect that designers included in this Nintendo DS game, and which was lacking in other similar games, is the ability to track the player’s progress. It keeps line charts to separately show the overall progress of the player and progress in each of the five areas. Brain Challenge gives the player a 3D rendered doctor who guides them through the game. This feature is quite different from the usual cartoony style adopted by most other games.

More Brain Training – a sequel to Brain Training would have been a major disappointment if it did not prove itself worthy of at least a try, simply because the original ‘Brain Training’ itself was a disaster and didn’t do well. The original came with a lot of problems and the interest would quickly wear off. The new title has turned the tables though.

More Brain Training is something that can keep your head alive and humming. The game makes you think and act although the graphics of the game might need a make-over. But then, it isn’t the graphics we are looking at, it is the clarity of the game and the way it makes you think – it’s intriguing.

The concept of the game remains the same and the whole idea is to give you “an exciting food-for-thought’. It throws plenty of brain-stimulating exercises to make your brain a tad more active than would have happened to it if it were to be busy doing nothing or watching the Telly.

More of less, the way the game looks and works is the same minus the glitches and bugs that were found in the original version. It now reeks of a well-thought out structure and comes with a polish at every aspect of the game. It now comes loaded with new brain exercises aplenty, notwithstanding the various difficulty levels and multi-player modes that give an extension to your money’s worth.

A must-own and it goes out to prove that not every game is a simple adrenaline pumping tool but there are some that pull your intuition and mental acuity with a two-pronged fork.

Some girl wearing a coat with a pink fur lined hood gives a review of Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day for the Nintendo DS Lite.