Best of Tests DS Review

Brain Age may not be Halo 3 for college students, it could be considered the equivalent for retirees. That is because the whole “brain games” genre that Nintendo created, or at least popularized on their handheld system, has caught on with an older crowd like no one really expected. As a result, there are a number of spinoffs. Whether from Nintendo (Big Brain Academy and Brain Age 2) or from third parties looking to cash in (Brain Assist, Mega Brain Boost, Left Brain Right Brain) Heck, there are even Spanish-teaching games on the Nintendo DS. Best of Tests DS is just another one of these types of games flooding Nintendo’s handheld.

Bests of Test DS is a simple game and as such, this will be a simple review. There is not really much to this budget title. You have two different modes to choose from (three if you count the Training mode). First you have your Intelligence tests, and the other mode is a set of Memory tests. The way it is set up you will have to play through on the Easy difficulty, unlocking Normal and Difficult as you complete them. Each of the three difficulties have three game lengths: Short, Medium and Long (10, 20 and 30 questions, respectively). You will progressively play and unlock each length and difficulty to complete the game.

The whole idea of a game like this is either to exercise your brain or to determine how intelligent you are. Instead of giving you an IQ, it will give you an Intelligence score and Global score. What exactly these numbers mean, I don’t have a clue, and neither does the game. If you are going to have a set of tests to show your intelligence, they should at least show your… intelligence (or lack of).

The questions they ask for the intelligence tests are simple and straightforward. How many sides are there on these objects? What object is out of place? If I turn an object, what will it look like? What word has the opposite meaning of the one listed? You will also have to solve patterns for various number sequences and card sequences. Some of them can be confusing, especially the card ones which sometimes seem to have no consistent pattern. Others assume you must be retarded: 7, 6, 5, 4, 3… which number comes next? Or how about the opposite of ugly? Is it “No”, or maybe “Her”? Come on!

Best of Tests DS would more appropriately be named “Best of Kindergarden Tests DS” or perhaps “Waste of Time DS”. If only SAT tests were this easy, I would be going to Harvard. For a “game” that tries to cash in on the Brain Age craze, it fails to do either of the two things that it set out for: entertain and test. You can not test for something without some kind of results. This game tells me nothing about either my intelligence or my memory. With that said, you will have to either lack all intelligence or have the memory of a amnesiac, after reading this review, to buy this game.