Brain Benders

11:09am Tuesday 1st July 2008

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Platform: Nintendo DS
Age 12
RRP £19.99

Bending the brain is not normally a good thing – but giving it a regular workout is ideal to keep the noggin working properly.

A new raft of games for the Nintendo DS is really doing some great business with adults keen to show they still have the mental agility they did when younger.

And these things really do work. Once you have acclimatised yourself to the various tasks they start to become almost second nature.

Dr Reiner Knizia's Brain Benders another title that can't be missed. Dr Knizia is apparently a world famous mathematician, expert in algorithmically generated logic problems and a man with over 300 board games and books to his name. So he knows his stuff alright then. And we are told his "fiendish genius" promises a "mental journey that will make you laugh and cry". Can't help thinking the cry bit may not be much fun.

This is a puzzle-based world tour with loads and loads of mind-twisting mini-games to complete.

In London you're balancing the books at the Bank of England, then in Paris you're fixing the alarm system at the Louvre. In Sydney there's some work to do with the orchestra at the Opera House, then you're off for a spell of trainspotting in Mumbia. And so it goes on. Makes a nice change from the pure maths games some of the other similar titles have.