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Computer Times
Editors' Choice DS Game Challenge Me: Maths Workout and Challenge Me: Brain Puzzles Reviewed by Angie Kibiloski
Challenge Me: Maths Workout (Retail $19.99), and Challenge Me: Brain Puzzles (Retail $19.99), from Oxygen Games, are 2 Nintendo DS games that teach logical thinking using number puzzles. Each game will develop reasoning skills through either simple math challenges or number sequences. You can set your skill level and give your brain a quick workout with these addictive games. They are great for older kids who can use these fun challenges to form their logic skills, as well as for adults who would like to sharpen or maintain their own logical reasoning. These games fit in perfect with the current trend of quick games that help keep your brain young and healthy. There are no bells and whistles, just simple puzzle solving fun. In Challenge Me: Maths Workout, there are 2 different challenges, Formulate and Hidden Logic. Formulate is the more math based challenge, where you have to collect and rearrange cards to create an accurate math formula. This is harder than it sounds. You play like many other card games, with a series of draws and discards, keeping the four cards in your hand that can help you most. The cards are numbered 1-9, and the numbers are paired with equation symbols, +, -, x, and /. Three of your cards must be arranged in the body of the equation, with the fourth as the answer to the problem. You can pick up the last card your opponent discarded, or draw a new one from the pile. Managing to get a useful number with an equally useful equation symbol can be tricky. Your score is calculated on how many correct formulas you create, and also on color bonuses. The cards are different colors, and you get extra points for using all one color, or having each card be a different color. Hidden Logic, my favorite of the 2 challenges, is a guessing game using logical reasoning. You play against 1 to 3 other players, or there is a mode in which you play alone. Each person is dealt a number of cards that are hidden from the other players. The cards are either black or white, and have numbers from 0-11. By looking at the cards you have in your hand, you must deduce which cards the other players are holding, and guess each card to win. There are certain rules to help you along, like the sequence will always go from the lowest card on the left to the highest on the right, and if someone has a black and white card of the same number, the black will always come first. So, when it is your turn, you choose a face down card in one of your opponents’ hands, then pick which number you would like to guess that it is. If you are correct, you have the option to guess again for another card or pass the turn to the next player. If you are wrong, then one of your cards gets turned over. The winner is the last person to have hidden cards remaining. This is a surprisingly addictive little challenge.
Challenge Me: Brain Puzzles contains 2 different challenges as well, Sudoku and Picture Logic. If you aren’t familiar with Sudoku, it is a number puzzle based around a 9x9 grid, with 9 smaller 3x3 boxes inside. You must place numbers 1-9 in each row, column, and smaller box, without repeating a single number in the same row, column, or box. Number input is easy, just tap a square and then tap the number you wish to enter. Picture Logic, my favorite of the 2 from this game, is really fun. You are given a grid of blank squares, the dimensions of which differ based on the difficulty of the puzzle. Above each column, and to the left of each row, are a series of numbers. Each number represents a string of connected, colored-in squares. By studying these numbers, and comparing the columns to the rows, you must deduce which squares in the grid are colored in and which are left blank. When you are finished, if you have done the puzzle correctly, you will be left with a picture that you have created from the colored-in squares. This can get quite complicated in high level puzzles, as the number of connected squares gets smaller and harder to place, and the simple black and white puzzles make way for complex colors ones. I love this type of puzzle, and have been playing them on paper for years. It is great to be able to have hundreds of picture logic puzzles at my fingertips.
Both Challenge Me: Maths Workout and Challenge Me: Brain Puzzles are great games for older kids and adults. They can help you develop your reasoning skills, keep them sharp, or just give your brain a quick workout every day to keep it young. The concept and game play of each challenge are simple and easy to learn, but the replay potential is extensive. I like these games not in spite of, but because they don’t have elaborate graphics or a story woven in with the puzzles. Sometimes, it’s great to just do some straightforward problem solving. Simple as they are, they are very addictive, and it feels so satisfying when you are able to breeze through these puzzles with increasing ease as your skills increase. It is important to keep working out our brains throughout our entire lives, and these games can help you do so in a fun and challenging manner.
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