3.The market seems to be flooded with training games at the moment, and it’s no wonder considering how successful they have been for the publishers, selling millions upon millions of units and helping swell the bank balances of those who make them. Up until now it has mostly been Nintendo reaping the benefits of games such as Brain Training and Brain Academy, however now Sony want a piece of the action, and with Buzz being a ready made franchise for these type of games, they have decided to scrap the quiz show for this particular game and concentrate on the training. 

 

The main game in Buzz Brain Bender provides you with 16 puzzles, which are separated into four different categories, these are observation, memory, analysis, and calculation. When playing the puzzles you are asked to select the answer using the face buttons, at the beginning there is only a choice of two answers, however as the puzzles progress four answers will become available, and given that there could be more than one right answer, coupled with the fact that you are being timed, this can be quite challenging. During each of the challenges the game will keep track of your progress, then once you have reached the end you will be given a score telling you how well or how poorly you have fared.

 

 

The sixteen puzzles in Brain Bender offer quite a bit of variety, you have simple games such as Match Up, which has you match pairs, Shape Spotter which has you choosing the shape that the silhouette on the screen belongs to and also others such as Sound Chain, where you have to remember the sounds and repeat the sequence and Sliced Up, where you have to guess what fraction of the food has not been eaten. There is certainly some tough challenges amongst the 16 games and they are addictive enough to have you going back for more.

 

Out with the main game you are able to take part in training, this allows you to play through each of the sixteen games in order to improve your times. There is incentive in the training mode in that you will earn a star if you manage to reach the target score (there is a star for each of the three difficulty levels), and by collecting these stars you will then be able to unlock new games to play in challenge mode. The training not only charts the progress you have made when playing but also keeps all of your top scores, therefore any score you are proud of will be there for anyone else using your PSP to beat.

 

When you have completed a challenge in any mode the game will compare your mental power to an electrical item, therefore you better get used to the phrase “Your brain has the power to run a Nose Trimmer” if you have anywhere near the skills I have at this game i.e. none.

 

Unlike other games in this genre, Buzz Brain Bender gives you the ability take a test any time you like, therefore should you fail miserably the first time you can try again straight away. This takes away some of the incentive to return really, as at least with Brain Training you could only check back once a day to take the test and see if you had improved, whereas in this game there is no real need to do this.

 

 

As an added incentive Brain Bender also gives you the Boffin Awards, these are achievements which are awarded for completing certain aspects of the game, such as answering 20 puzzles correctly in a row or getting a star on every difficulty. Each of the awards that you can earn are visible from choosing this option in the menu, so anyone who wants all of them can see what they need to do.

 

Buzz Brain Bender is a decent attempt at a Brain Training game, it does offer some great challenges and plenty of incentive thanks to the awards and high score recording. The PSP doesn’t have many games like this in its catalogue so if you are looking for a Brain game for your Sony handheld then this may be just what you need.