Box cover

One of the latest additions to the puzzle game market is Challenge Me Brain Puzzles, brought to you by Oxygen Games. It is inevitable that any game that claims to give your brain a good work out is going to be compared to bestseller Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training, so does this offering step up to the mark?

The first thing to notice about this game is its simplistic design. There has been no great effort to make this game visually appealing, which is fine because a straightforward puzzle game doesn’t really need to be all singing and dancing. This would also appeal to adults with its simple interface, but younger players may not be so impressed. Having said that, there is the option to customise the background colour to make it a bit more appealing. The soundtrack is also very simple, but goes well with the game and is not too distracting.

This game itself only offers two types of puzzle; Sudoku and Picture Logic. This could be seen as very limiting and may alienate players who just like to play mind boggling puzzles. However, for those who happen to be fans of these two specific puzzles, then this is perfect!

There are two modes in this game, which are Puzzle and Instant Fun. Puzzle mode means that your progress is saved, and Instant Fun mode is just, well, for fun. Within the Puzzle mode there are two more options; Challenge Me and Free Play. Challenge Me tracks your process with graphs and statistics, and Free Play offers 500 puzzles that can be played in any order, with the best 3 times recorded.

The Sudoku puzzles are nothing new. They are the same as any other Sudoku grids in any book, newspaper or game. If you enjoy them, you won’t be disappointed. The numbers are easy to enter and the function that allowed the same number to be highlighted proved to be very helpful. Apart from that, there is nothing really much to report on. You have probably made your mind up by now as to whether you like Sudoku, and there is nothing new about this version.

The Picture Logic game is more difficult, especially if you have never played a puzzle like it before. The aim is to create a picture on a grid by using the numbers along the side. Sound complicated? It is quite. Some puzzles require you to use two colours, while some need only one colour. The puzzles comprising of more than one colour are supposed to be more difficult, but I found that having more than one colour in a picture was much easier.

To be honest, I tried many of these puzzles and only completed three successfully, mostly through trial and error. There is a sense of achievement after completing a level, but there is also much frustration on the path to reaching the goal.

All areas of the game use the touch screen and stylus on the DS, which makes the menus and gameplay easy to control. Upon one touch of the stylus, there is a description of the option you have touched on the top screen (or side as it is in this game). Then on the second touch the selected option is opened. This can be a little frustrating, but it’s not too major.

Overall, this game isn’t bad for a puzzle game, but it is let down by the fact that there are only two puzzles to choose from. Although it is not visually very pleasing, it doesn’t really matter to the puzzles, as gameplay is fairly good. This game could have been more interesting and varied, which is really its downfall. If you do not like either of these puzzles, then it will be a big disappointment. If you happen to like both, then it’s not bad.

+ Simple design is not distracting
+ Easy to play using touch screen
+ Many levels to get through

- Only two games is limiting
- “Easier” levels of Picture Logic are difficult
- All games are timed, even Free Play

SCORE – 6/10