Buzz! Brain Bender - Sony PSP

12:47pm Friday 21st November 2008

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A NEW leader in the brain game genre is about to emerge - Buzz! Brain Bender for the PSP is set to take over the title of ‘class swot’ from Brain Training on the DS.

While the Brain Training titles on the Nintendo handheld remain very good, it sometimes feels like sitting through a school lesson as you work on the DS exercises.

Sony’s new rival comes across as being fundamentally more fun and rewarding.

The game aims to improve your brain in four key areas: memory, observation, calculation and analysis.

There are 16 mini games to test your ability in each of these four categories.

For example, in the memory section there is Take Away – you must memorise playing cards to know which are missing when you see them for a second time.

One of the observation games is Match Up – how quickly can you spot pairs among a group of objects?

The calculation games include Blot Swot where you have to fill in the numbers missing from various maths problems.

And in analysis you can try Power Struggle – you’re shown a tug-of-war between different vehicles and you must work out which is strongest.

The games are timed so speed is vital as well as accuracy - quick pressing of the correct buttons is essential to achieving a good score. The score is based on how much brain your brain is supposedly outputting, measured in kilojoules.

Brain bender offers several modes of play.

In training you can choose the game you play. You’re given a gold, silver or bronze medal depending on your score, and you must work through easy, medium and hard levels for each game.

Test mode charts your progress over time. Each test gives you a random game to play from each category. Your combined power score is then converted into an equivalent electrical item such as a vacuum cleaner, TV or jukebox so you can see how you are improving - or not!

Challenge mode mixes up the various games and levels of difficulty. You unlock challenges to try as you progress, and you must then complete the objective required in each one, getting the highest score you can.

The final mode is perhaps the most fun – brain battle. Compete against up to five other people in a multi-player brain-testing frenzy. Choose four games to play – players take turns playing each one, passing the PSP around the group.

Buzz! Brain Bender looks really good the PSP and plays very well.

Quiz master Buzz takes on a mad scientist role in this game, and his encouragement and sarcastic put-downs add to the enjoyment.

Brain Bender is not as formal as other brain or as obviously ‘educational’ but it has something which many of the other similar games on the market lack, the fun factor.

Congratulations to Relentless Software and Sony for a job well done on this one – it raises the stakes in the genre and gives the PSP a new game to be proud of.

Verdict: 9 out of 10

The good
- Plenty of depth and variety in the game
- Colourful, attractive, well produced look
- Excellent multi-player option

The bad
- May cause domestic tension when competing in the brain battle!