Although the Nintendo DS launched in November of 2004, one could argue that the Brain Age games brought the company into the mainstream light and did away with the notion that video games are simply for kids and young adults. Middle-aged and even senior citizens have picked up the DS and Brain Age for their intuitive nature and ease of use. With successful products come imitators looking to cash in on the latest trends, and that's exactly what Conspiracy Entertainment's Best of Tests DS has done. What Best of Tests hasn't done, however, is captured what made Brain Age fun in the first place and the result is a shoddy piece of software which tries hard to be like its brain-teasing predecessors but falls flat on its face.

The back of the box claims that the game "calculates your IQ" after a series of tests. While that would be nice, what it actually does is scores you based on the number of right answers you get and then totals them over the number of questions. While IQ scores are in reality the result of right answers over wrong answers tested by a number of math, spatial and word problems, the difficulty of the questions asked are so varied that it's almost impossible to gauge someone's actual IQ based on them.

The game separates its questions into two different types: intelligence tests and memory tests. It then separates them further by dividing the questions into difficulty levels and then by separating them into "short," "medium," and "long" categories. Types of questions include unscrambling words, simple memory games, algebra, and counting the number of sides on a geometric shape. The thing is, the questions don't actually get more involved or difficult as the game goes on. It also forces you to start on the lowest difficulty and build your way up. The only thing that changes between the difficulties is the number of questions they ask you, which really just feels like an artificial way to increase playtime in the game. For those who are stuck on a particular type of question, there's a practice mode where you can guess until you get the answer right.

Best of Tests is extremely short, and you can most likely complete the game in just a few hours. The questions often repeat themselves, and after completing one difficulty you'll pretty much see what the game has to offer. With virtually no diversity and little motive to complete the game, not even the most avid of Brain Age fans would want to touch this one.

Apr 30, 2008 | 0 comments
Jeff Craven