Puzzlers have always been a prominent genre in gaming in one form or another - just look at icons like Tetris. Yet, Nintendo has helped popularize the concept of "brain games," namely with the breakout hit Brain Age for the Nintendo DS.
These were primarily logic and number puzzles in a digital setting, laced with some gaming properties to add to their excitement. This sort of software has enticed millions to help flex and exercise their brain power while having a good time.
The recently-released Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training for Switch took this appealing concept and fleshed it out even further. Still, there exist a number of other ways to get a mental workout when it comes to video games.
With this list, we'll look at 10 of the best examples. These will be games that hinge mainly on logic puzzles which are both tricky and enjoyable, and will bear at least some resemblance to the addictive Brain Age/Training titles.
10 Spellkeeper (Switch)
While most on our list will fall under the category of more straightforward brain training romps, this creative puzzler also puts your cognitive skills to the test with its variety of scenarios.
Spellkeeper is a colorful fantasy take on logic-based puzzlers, and makes for an experience that's tough, yet accessible. The name of the game is to guide a stream of magic across scattered tiles in order to get butterflies to spout when touching them. It seems like a simple premise, yet there are a slew of different elements and obstacles to factor in when guiding the stream. Knocking out these puzzles after you've spent minutes pondering your next move offers a rewarding experience that's great for both mind and morale.
9 Picross DS
Similar to the likes of Sudoku, Picross is a fairly well-known logic game made up of a grid of various sequences. Yet unlike Sudoku, which has you fill in numbers in the grids, the goal here is to figure a solution and formulate a picture on the grid. You achieve this by using the given numbers on the borders as a reference point. These digits tip you off as to how many squares are to be filled in each row, and at what position.
The DS is a terrific fit for such a game as you can easily utilize the touch screen to fill in areas and zoom in or out, given you a simpler, more intuitive means of control.
8 Neonwall (Switch)
Much like Spellkeeper, Neonwall serves as a colorful indie take on a puzzler; this time resorting to vibrant, psychedelic imagery to keep you enticed.
Despite the occasionally stressful multitasking required in these logic puzzles, this game proves deceptively fun and addictive. Neonwall runs with a rather basic premise of guiding a ball through a blocky obstacle course. Yet, the gameplay itself is anything but simple, as you'll have to juggle multiple, color-coded tasks. These include swapping out colors for your control paddles, triggering and clearing passageways, etc.
This indie cleverly blends fast reaction time, logic, and concentration, making for an exciting puzzler that'll test your wits in real-time.
7 Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree
While the Big Brain Academy series offers an experience that's similar to Brain Age/Brain Training, the former actually received a rendition on the Wii. It's tough to get too excited over any game sporting words like "academy" or "degree," but this overlooked brain-buster actually offers some fun, exciting romps. Not only is there a range of delightful, creative challenges featured, but you can even face off against a friend in a thrilling race to first place.
There's a surprising amount of depth here too, as you can adjust the difficulty and will be given categorical scores based on speed and accuracy. The game utilizes some sharp, responsive pointer controls, making the experience seamless and exciting.
6 Memorado (Mobile)
Following the success of the Brain Age series on DS, developers have naturally migrated over to the more sophisticated mobile devices, which offer similar touch-screen functionality to make for quick, intuitive experiences. While there are quite a few examples of these brain busters, one of the strongest examples comes in the form of Memorado.
This app focuses mainly on visually-oriented trials that train your memory, concentration, and reaction time, along with some logic-based scenarios. You may, for instance, be shown a series of colored balls which vanish, before being prompted to answer which color disappeared first.
5 Lumosity (Mobile)
Like our previous entry, Lumosity has established itself as a well-known, solid choice if you seek a brain-training romp for mobile devices. In another similarity, this comes with a more limited free version, along with a paid "premium" rendition which offers more in-depth tips, analysis, and content.
You'll be working through some colorful, bite-sized logic games and be granted scores in various categories upon finishing them. These range from matching numbers in a certain sequence to following visually-based instructions like arranging pictures of food in a certain order based on instructions.
4 Puzzler Mind Gym 3D (3DS)
Yes, as it turns out, the 3DS has had its share of brain games, too. While perhaps not quite as iconic as Brain Age, 3DS' Puzzler Mind Gym 3D puts a neat twist on its collection of digital mind workouts.
The game is more geared towards children with its emphasis on more colorful, 3-dimensional images, granting an appealing presentation. Many of its minigames are also on the simpler side, but are nonetheless fun to work through as you try and speed your way through a slew of random memory, logic, and concentration games. The experience is kept fresh with its cycling between images, words, and numbers for its puzzles.
3 Brain Boost: Gamma Wave (DS)
While Brain Age and Big Brain Academy tended to hog the spotlight when it comes to digital mind exercises, Majesco's puzzler somewhat flew under the radar. It's a bit rough around the edges and slim in content compared to Dr. Kawashima's software, to be sure. Yet, this DS game still provides its own certain charm with its focus on picture games and notching high scores.
Similar to Brain Age being endorsed and inspired by Japanese brain researcher Kawashima, Majesco based its games off the style of Makoto Shichida's "Shichida Method." This focuses on right brain training in Japanese youth that stresses aesthetic sensibility and emotion.
2 Big Brain Academy (DS)
In many ways, the lesser-known Big Brain Academy took the fundamentals of Brain Age one step further, at least for the more creatively-minded crowd.
Rather than hone in on number crunching, wordplay, and basic images, this game took a more colorful, visually-oriented approach, helping it stand out when it launched in mid-2005.
You might, for instance, be shown a bunch of moving animal silhouettes and asked to match them up with the revealed pictures of each creature.
Rather than given a specific "brain age," you're also shown a more elaborate score based on multiple elements - think, identify, compute, analyze, and memorize. But you're also tossed a more convenient, unified final "weight" of your brain. Yes, this strangely-designed professor has no qualms about revealing your supposed smarts.
1 Brain Age: Concentration Training (3DS)
As it happens, Dr. Kawashima makes an appearance on Nintendo's DS follow-up as well, in all his polygonal 3D glory. This sequel to Brain Age runs with a similar style of the original brain-busters, yet it adds a new dimension to the experience, in more ways than one.
This game cleverly utilizes the context of modern times - and the distracting effect of technological stimulation - for its main themes. These essentially boil down to challenges that hone concentration and memory. Yet, Concentration Training plays this out in a fun, creative manner. You're also thrown a curveball with the new "Devilish Training," which puts a trickier twist on existing challenges and adjusts the difficulty according to performance.