Brain Boost : Gamma Wave
- January 08, 2007 00:00 AM PST
Like some sort of quack doctor, Brain Boost inflates its own worth by dazzling gullible gamers with fancy certificates and the research of Dr. Makoto Shichida and his Right Brain Development Theory.
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The theory behind the two games, which honestly could have been easily combined into one, is fine but the shoddy lessons and presentation are unacceptable.
Is There A Doctor In The House?
Through repetition of images/shapes/patterns/numbers, Dr. Shichida's theory purports to activate the right brain and heighten its potential. Now, far be it from me to call into question the good doctor's work, but the scoring system in Brain Boost is mind bogglingly simplistic.
The player's success rate is gauged on a scale of zero to one-hundred; so if you answer six out of ten problems correctly, your brain is 60% developed. That's not exactly neuroscience, is it? Furthermore, there's no way of gauging the speed that you complete the problems in. Each one has a time limit of a few seconds, but there's literally no difference between completing a problem in one second or in five. So it's impossible to tell if the game is actually working.
Each title includes five games: Beta Wave features image matching, shape recognition, multiple integer addition, memory sequences and moving dots while Gamma Wave features puzzles utilizing colors, numbers, circumstances, faces and images. The four difficulty levels for each, while challenging, do little to mix up game play. In fact, once you've mastered each level of every game--there are twenty total--there's really no reason to ever boot them up again.
Also disappointing was the lack of any head-to-head or multi-player functionality; there's no unlockable content, either. The games themselves are monotonous and don't really instill you with a need to play them repeatedly. Overall, Brain Boost: Gamma and Beta Wave are decent titles that might beef up your brain, but if you're really looking for a boost in brain power, take up speed reading or chess instead.
Pros: Some mildly interesting games.
Cons: Neither is worth playing repeatedly, which sort of defeats the purpose.
