Brain training games were all the rage a couple years ago, but have since fallen to the wayside in favor of bigger adventures. The Amazing Brain Train from NinjaBee looks to bring some education to your WiiWare downloads and make you enjoy educational gaming again. While the puzzles are interesting, the rest of the game is not, making it a tough sell.

There are three main modes of play in The Amazing Brain Train: Quest, Test, and Training. The main Quest mode has you going around train tracks (hence the name) completing puzzle quests to help Professor Fizzwizzle and his animal friends. The puzzles themselves are fun and provide a nice level of difficulty for all ages, but everything else about Quest mode is tailored to children, and somewhat poorly. In an effort to get a younger perspective in addition to my own, I had a friend and his son (age 6) over to also play the game. His son felt the same way I did: the Quest mode is boring. Test mode, on the other hand, puts you through 5 randomly chose games to see how you can do against your previous high scores. With 15 puzzle games available, each play through of Test mode will be slightly different. Training allows you to choose one of the 15 mini-game puzzles to play in either timed or unlimited modes to get smarter.

bad

So here’s the $10,000 question: is The Amazing Brain Train worth your 600 Nintendo Points ($6)? It’s questionable. While I did enjoy the puzzles and liked playing Test mode a few times, the Quest mode was boring and easily skipped. I’d say if you’re a puzzle fan with some Nintendo Points to burn and the desire to finally turn on your Wii, it’s not a bad purchase. If you have kids, it’ll keep them entertained for a short while.

[A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for review purposes.]