Spb Brain Evolution: Expand Your Horizons To A Whole New Level Of Gaming Entertainment.

Posted by: dgoldring on Jan 27 2007 - 8,272 views

 

Some of the best games are those that allow you to have fun while learning new skills or improving your existing skills.  Whether it is shape recognition, reflexes, hand-eye coordination, or plain old math, any game seems to be more fulfilling when your are improving yourself while playing…or at least that is the way I have always justified my video game addiction.

With Spb Brain Evolution, however, there is no need for justification.  Every time your pick up the game, you are improving yourself…making yourself smarter, faster, better, stronger. Well, maybe not stronger, but definitely smarter, faster and better.  Watch as you work your way through the game, and you will see yourself whipping through puzzles which seemed impossibly difficult only days earlier.  This is the beauty of Spb’s latest offering.  Instant gratification.

Installation and Registration: Spb Brain Evolution uses the standard SPB installation interface.  One file allows you to install either the registered version or the trial version via ActiveSync.  With the trial version, you will be afforded 15 days of fun-filled learning opportunities.  Enter the registration code to convert the trial version to the unlocked version and unleash the full potential of your brain.

Game Modes: There are two modes of play in Brain Evolution: Brain Training and Brain Marking.  Although these modes serve different roles within the game, they both utilize various combinations of the same 10 mini-games.  I like the fact that gameplay in either mode consists of a series of short games, which allow you to stop for a break at any time.  I did find it to a be a little unclear, however, that Brain Marking and Brain Training were intended to be completely separate modes of play.  I would have preferred them to be connected in some way, so that improving your Brain Training scores would have some affect on the Brain Marking.  This is a minor point, however, and really did not affect my enjoyment of this fantastic game. 

Brain Training: Brain Training mode is designed to increase your thinking and logic skills by testing you in several different areas: short term memory, pattern identification, logic, calculation, and puzzle solving. 

Brain Training allows you to become familiar with each of the ten mini-games, and conquer them at your own pace, thereby increasing your logic and reasoning abilities. 

At the beginning of the game, you will be able to access four mini-games (Arithmatica, Quadronica, Memorics, and Sudoku).  At first, a training session will consist of only two games.  As you progress, and unlock additional games, you will also be permitted to play more games per session.  Of course, this rubs both ways.  In each session, regardless of how many games you have unlocked, you can only play each one once.  Therefore, if you are close to advancing to the next level in one of the games, you must complete the training session before you can play it again.  I liked this, as it forces you to play all of the games, and not limit yourself to those at which you are experienced or particularly talented.

As I mentioned, when you begin playing, only four of the ten games are unlocked.  Each game has four levels (easy, medium, hard, and maximum). By achieving a minimum score on each game, you make progress in that game toward the next level.  Advancing to higher levels in the various mini-games, allows you to unlock additional games.

You can also play any games which you have already completed during that training session as practice rounds.  These rounds, however, will not be scored toward your Brain Training session. 

I loved the flexibility of Brain Training.  Since a training session is always limited to fewer games than you have unlocked at any point during the game, you have the ability to choose which games will make each training session.

Brain Marking: Brain Marking is designed to measure your overall logic abilities, rather than focusing on one area in isolation like Brain Training.  When you run the game for the first time, it will automatically run in Brain Marking mode in order to obtain a baseline measurement.  Anytime you want to take a future measurement, simply select Brain Marking.

Although Brain Marking is comprised of the same mini-games as Brain Training, it is played very differently.  Instead of allowing you to choose which games to play, Brain Marking is comprised of five predetermined games (Quadronica, Arithmatica, Memorics, Numbers, and Guess Who).  Complete one round of each game, and the computer will tally your scores and assign you a Brain Marking total score.  Use future Brain Marking sessions to try to improve upon this score.

I admit that I rarely played the game in this mode.  It simply did not appeal to me.  I would have preferred that the two modes were linked together in such a way that your Brain Marking score would increase based upon your scores in either future Brain Marking sessions or Brain Training.  As it is, however, the Brain Marking and Brain Training modes are completely separate. 

The way this was explained to me was to think of Brain Marking as the test and Brain Training as the test preparation or homework.  I suppose this may be fine for some people, however, I found that Brain Marking simply did not further my enjoyment of the game the way Brain Training did.  This analogy was also lost on me because Brain Marking frequently consists of difficulty levels, or entire games which have not yet been unlocked.

Finally, while you can compete in multiple Brain Training sessions each day, you can only complete one Brain Marking session in a 24-hour period.  And if I can provide one piece of advice, I would not recommend completing Brain Marking late at night as I did.  Embarrassingly, I found my scores actually decreasing significantly (were my logic skills really getting lower??) when I tested Brain Marking at 1:00 am.  Fortunately, I completed a Brain Marking test later in the week during daylight hours and returned to my previous levels of accomplishment.

Mini Games: As I mentioned, both modes of play in this game consist of up to ten mini-games designed to test and improve your short memory, pattern identification, calculation, logic, and puzzle solving.  Each game takes between 2 and 5 minutes, which makes Brain Evolution an ideal game for those times when you have just a few minutes to play (such as when you are waiting in line at the Post Office, or attending a particularly dull meeting).  The games also provide an excellent mix of classic and new puzzles.  Although I can think of dozens of additional games which could have been added, and I would love to see Spb add to the list of mini-games in future versions, I do believe that they did an excellent job of researching and developing an initial list of 10 games.  Note that the game descriptions below are in the order they appear in the game.  When you begin, only Arithmatica, Quadronica, Memorics, and Sudoku are unlocked.  As you progress, the other games can be unlocked in the order they appear below.

Arithmatica: Simply put, Arithmatica makes you a human calculator.  You will be given a mathematic formula which you must solve in your head.  Enter the correct answer to move to the next problem.  A round consists of 30 problems.  In the early round, you will be limited to addition and subtraction.  As the difficulty level increases, however, you will face multiplication and division problems as well.  Additionally, later rounds will also involve more complex problems, such as long division.  Thankfully, there are no story problems.

 

 

 

Quadronica: Although Quadronica was a new game to me, it is based on a classic puzzle solving concept.  The board consists of a grid filled with colored boxes.  The idea is to identify four identical colored boxes which match up to form a square.  Tap on each of the four boxes (which will make up the corners of your square), and all of the boxes contained within the square will be replaced.  I enjoyed the pace of this game; It requires you  to make split second strategic decisions.  Do you want to go for a lot of low scoring small squares, or find the great white whale and make one giant square to score all of your points at once?

 

Memorics: This is probably my least favorite game in the package.  It is based on a classic psychology memory test which my roommate used to practice on us in college.  The idea is you are shown a tray full of items for a short period of time, and then are asked questions to test your  recollection of the items you just viewed.  I found the difficulty level on this game advanced too quickly for its position in the game.  It should have been one of the later (if not the last) puzzles to be unlocked. 

 
 

 

Sudoku: Sudoku is by now well known to virtually everyone as "that quirky, but addictive numbers puzzle which appears on the comics page of the newspaper every day."  The rules are fairly simple, you are given a 9×9 grid, which is broken into 9 smaller 3×3 grids.  Based upon the clues provided, you must enter the numbers 1-9 to fill in all of the squares.  Each row, column and 3×3 box must contain each number from 1-9, without repetition.  I must admit that I am a recovering Sudoku addict.  I have played virtually every Sudoku game available, and even competed in the Washington Post’s Sudoku challenge (I finished in the top 20).  This is one of the best Sudoku games I have seen for the Pocket PC.  SPB would do well to sell this as a standalone game as well as part of Brain Evolution.

 

Numbers:  This is an arithmetic based game.  Although I had never seen this game before, it quickly became one of my favorite parts of Brain Evolution.  The board consists of a 9×9 grid. Within the grid is a smaller square.  Each block in the smaller square is assigned a number.  You control a 3×3 box outline with a numeric value inside it.  The idea is to manipulate your square outline around the edges of the playing field, positioning your box in such a way that the sum of the numbers on the blocks falling inside your box totals a number which ends in the value displayed in your box (so that if you had a 7 in your box, your move could entail positioning your box so that it contains a "5", "8", and "4" totaling 17).  It sounds confusing, but is an easy game to learn and a hard game to put down.

 

Minesweeper: This is the classic game which was made popular around the world by Windows 3.11 — itself a classic operating system.  Again, this is a grid-based game.  The easy level consists of a smaller grid, however, the grid expands as you reach the higher levels.  Under some of the blocks there are mines hidden.  Under the other blocks, there is a number telling you how many mines are touching that block.  Using these numbers as your guide, you must locate and flag all of the mines.

 

 

Balltracker: This is a new spin on a classic puzzle game.  You must guide your ball through a maze, ultimately leading it out the marked exit door.  Once set in motion, your ball will continue moving in the same direction until it hits a wall.  Be careful, though, if you run your ball off the edge of the screen and you will need to start the level from the beginning.  Although this one starts off easy, the higher levels will make you realize why no points are required to advance to the next level.  All you have to do is complete the round…and that is hard enough.

 

Guess Who: Guess Who is a fun and interesting game which tests your ability to find patterns in a group of objects.  In each round, you are given a group of shapes, each one with different attributes (number of sides, colors, pattern inside the shape, and attachments or flags).  You are also given a series of features to match.  You must find the lone object on the screen which matches all of the features you are given.

 
 

 

Encyclopedia: Encyclopedia is nothing more than a trivia contest.  You will be given a series of facts to remember, each one with an important figure associated with it.  You will then be asked multiple choice questions in order to test your recollection of those facts and figures.  This was not one of the more enjoyable games in the program.  I also thought that its level of difficulty was misplaced.  This was a relatively easy game, which probably should have been switched with Memorics, so that it would be unlocked when you start the game.

 

 

• Matches: This is a logic game which, believe it or not, traces its popularity to the days before computers and computer games.  You are given a group of matchsticks, which you must arrange to form a predefined pattern or picture.  This one will give you fits for hours as you find yourself perpetually one move away from solving the game. 

 

 

 

 

• 

Knowledge Base: Each time you complete a round of Brain Training, you are rewarded with a little known fact which can be added to your knowledge base.  For example, I had no idea that an octopus has rectangular pupils in its eyes.  I’m not sure I am better off for knowing that fact, but it is interesting.  Most of these facts are the kinds of things that you read and mutter under your breath, "Huh.  I never knew that."  I am impressed by the amount of research which must have gone into finding the various facts to include in this section.

At any time during the game, click on the My Diary tab to review all of the facts in your knowledge base.  I found it appropriate that, in a game designed to enhance your brain power, each round ends with a new fact.  There are, however, a limited number of facts in the game.  It would be nice if SPB provided expansion packs which would add additional facts to the game. This would allow for themed facts (such as sports related, movies, history, etc.) and it would allow each individual to expand their knowledge base facts at their own pace.

Awards: There are several different awards which can be earned in this game.

• Best Play Awards are awarded in each game in Brain Training mode when you reach Maximum difficulty in that game.
• Training Program Complete Certificate is awarded when you have reached the Maximum difficulty level in all ten games in Brain Training Mode.
• Nobel Prize Winner Certificate is awarded when you reach achieve Nobel Prize Winner status in Brain Marking mode. 

Inclusion of the awards is certainly a fine detail in this game.  I do not think I would have missed the awards if they had not been offered.  The game works great without them.  The fact that they are included, however, is like the icing on SPB’s cake.  It just makes it a little more enjoyable.  Having said that, and since awards are included, I think there should be awards at some of the lower level milestones to help you build an entire trophy case.

User Profile and Statistics: One of the nice things about Brain Evolution is that you can share it with your friends and family.  Multiple players can each create their own user profile, which saves all of their game information and statistics for both Brain Training and Brain Marking.  It is easy to switch between players or even start the game over again with a new user profile.

 

Conclusion: Spb has a reputation for developing fantastic programs designed to make your Pocket PC a better, more usable device.  I use my Pocket PC as a diversion from the ordinary monotony of my every day commute to work.  With a variety of puzzles, all tied together into the framework of two great gaming modes, this game has helped me pass countless hours on the train.  To that end, it has certainly made the Pocket PC a better device for me.  To top it off, while you are enjoying 10 great mini-games, each with outstanding graphics, you are also improving your mental capabilities — getting smarter.  So, play Spb Brain Evolution today.  Then, tomorrow, you can ask your boss for that big raise.  Just tell him you are…evolving.

Vital Statistics:

Name: Spb Brain Evolution

Version: 1.0

Platform: WM 2003 SE

Also Available: WM5

Developer: Spb Software House

Available From:  Spb Software House        

                            JAMM Store

Price:  $19.95

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!