Brain Boost: Beta Wave (DS) (gamespy)

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Ever since the hugely successful debuts of Brain Age and Big Brain Academy on the Nintendo DS, it seems like everyone wants to take a ride on the brain training bandwagon. Not wanting to be left behind, Majesco is bringing its take on the mental exercise phenomenon to gamers in two distinct flavors, Brain Boost: Beta Wave and Brain Boost: Gamma Wave. But do either of these releases have the ability to hold gamers' attentions long enough to pull off any more than just a mental warm-up?

The Brain Boost games are based on the work of researcher Makoto Shichida and his theory of right brain development. The theory states that the right side of the brain, used mainly for recognition, creativity, etc., has a "silent area" that goes generally unused by the general populous. Shichida theorized that by using a series of quick daily drills focusing on absorbing lots of information in rapid-fire doses, a person could stimulate this area of the brain and develop new neural pathways, resulting in better mental skills.

The Brain Boost games divide these exercises into two titles, one to improve memory (Beta Wave) and one to improve concentration (Gamma Wave). Each game contains five specialized mini-games which players choose to train their brains in either Training mode or Challenge mode. Training allows players to take on any of the mini-games at any level, earning a high score based on performance. Challenge mode, on the other hand, has the player take on all of the mini-games at increasing levels of difficulty, tying everything together with a pretty weak story involving traveling to new planets and playing the games to earn an oddball trinket of some sort or another. Beating one planet sends the player to the next, which is little more than the same round of games at the next level of difficulty. In Training mode, the goal is to earn and maintain a high score. In Challenge mode, all you have to do is pass (earn a 50% score or higher) to move on. Between the two modes, players will probably spend more time in Training, as it allows them to not only play the games they want, but also earns them some bragging rights on the leaderboard.

One thing I like a lot about Brain Boost is that each mini-game gives the player multiple-choice options for answering instead of relying on either handwriting or voice recognition. In other games (I'm looking at you, Brain Age), nothing was more frustrating than knowing I had an answer right, only to get it marked wrong because the game thought my fours looked like nines. Not only did that throw off the results, but it can mess up a person's concentration for the rest of that round. Thankfully, there are no such problems in Brain Boost. Everything was smooth as silk during the gameplay, and the only mistakes were ones I actually made.

Although I like the way Brain Boost handles the different mini-games, there is still a lot I feel is missing. First off, there's no way to track your progress over time, short of getting a new high score. One of the nice things about Brain Age was that players could actually see how they had improved over time, or even how a bad day could affect them mentally. Another huge problem I have is the fact that there are only five training exercises per title. Both games could have easily fit on one DS card instead of being split up for a bigger profit margin. And at a retail price of about twenty dollars, that's forty bucks shelled out for the whole experience -- more than a little pricey for two halves of a whole.

With the brain game phenomenon kicking into high gear, it's getting harder and harder to find one that actually makes you feel like you're getting smarter. Taken as a whole, Brain Boost: Beta Wave and Brain Boost: Gamma Wave manage to do just that. Unfortunately, the decision to split things across two titles makes each game feel like an overpriced demo, proving the old adage that the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts.