Last year, Vancouver-based Grubby Games released The Amazing Brain Train, a collection of intellect-challenging mini-games for PC. The game went on to become a finalist in Penny Arcade's PAX 10 indie competition.
Now a fellow indie studio, Utah-based NinjaBee (Cloning Clyde, Boingz), has partnered with Grubby to bring The Amazing Brain Train to WiiWare.
"It's a departure from the minimalist brain games we've seen in the past," said Grubby co-founder Ryan Clark when the port was announced. "You can forget about goal-less gameplay: The Amazing Brain Train is packed with quests, trophies and high scores that add an aspect of gameplay that other brain games just don't have."
Getting in to the mind of a child is hard, developing a game for a 6 year-old version of yourself is not an easy task. The Amazing Brain Train feels like it started with the intent to be a really fun and fast-paced brain training game but instead got caught up in adult sensibilities and forgot who it was for. It's a fine game for adults who like getting sucked in to their brain teasers and can overlook kiddie visuals, but unless your child is extremely patient or well read the interface may feel a little confusing and frustrating for them.
Brain training games were all the rage a couple years ago, but have since fallen to the wayside in favor of bigger adventures. The Amazing Brain Train from NinjaBee looks to bring some education to your WiiWare downloads and make you enjoy educational gaming again. While the puzzles are interesting, the rest of the game is not, making it a tough sell.
Game Vortex writes: "Brain training games are a staple on every platform at this point, including several successful entries for Nintendo portables. A quick search for the Wii only pulls up a few titles, and only one of them counts as a pure "brain" game: Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree. There's something incredibly appealing about the idea of brain-building games, but the problem has been that form tends to follow function."
