Puzzler Mind Gym 3D
Score: 86% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: Ubisoft Entertainment Developer: Ideas Pad Media: Cartridge/1 Players: 1 Genre: Puzzle
Graphics & Sound: Mind game tests must be relatively easy to write as it seems that there are a lot of them available. Puzzler Mind Gym 3D is a new puzzle game. Does it have what it takes to stand out from the rest in a crowd of puzzles? Visually, Puzzler Mind Gym 3D has a leg up on the older games as you can play it in 3D. For those of you who love the 3D feature, that's a huge bonus. If you're not big on 3D though, for the most part, you can turn it off and it doesn't really affect the puzzles or your ability to play them, which is really nice because some days your eyes just don't focus on 3D after hours of playing! I do like that all of the puzzles have very easy to distinguish characteristics. If it's a number, then they are easy to read. Items are easy to pick out and things stand out well from the background. All these things are very important for a successful puzzle game. The audio is nice, but not absolutely necessary to the game. The background music will help you tune out outside noise distractions without distracting from the game, but if you happen to want to listen to whatever you want, you will pretty much be ok doing that. You will get a beeping when your countdown timer is almost out though, and that is handy.
Gameplay: The first thing you need to do when you start Puzzler Mind Gym 3D is create a new game save. There are three total game slots, so you can have three games yourself or share with other family members. After that, when you load up the game save, you'll be taken to a screen that shows 9 gears with numbers in them on the left and four other pictures that you can tap on the right. The gears are your daily sessions. There are 90 total. You get to the rest of them by just scrolling down. The top right pic is also of gears and will take you back to them. When you select a gear, you'll be taken to the four warm-up challenges that you have to get a C or better on to unlock the daily challenges behind them. You can get a score of A through F and also U. You will need to hit the arrow at the bottom to go to the next challenge after you beat one as it does not automatically go to the next. The four categories of challenges are Memory, Visual, Numerical, and Word. I think that you'll find that you are stronger in some categories than others, so it is usually easy to see what you need to work on. The next pic down on the main screen is a bar graph. When you go there, you can see your previous challenge results. At first, it's not very useful because you don't have much data, but the more you play, it is really nice to be able to see your scores and how they have changed. Hopefully, they have improved! If they haven't or if you just want help to get better, on the bottom left is a pic of the professor that you can go to for strategies. Some of them are more helpful than others, but they're all worth reading through for sure. On the bottom right of the main screen is a color-coded brain where you can see any of the brain facts that you have previously unlocked. Also on the main screen are Options, where you can change the audio, view the instructions, and view the credits.
Difficulty: At first, I thought that Puzzler Mind Gym 3D was an easy game. The first gear challenge is quite easy to pass. After that though, things get significantly more difficult quickly. I found myself wanting a pad and pencil to add up things or jot notes, but that's not the point of the game, so I made myself push on with just my brain. As if the puzzles themselves aren't enough, there is a timer in the upper right corner of most games that continually reminds you that you're running out of time and every second you lose means your score is potentially dropping. That's even stressful for me to think about again in just writing it. Anytime there is a timer, mentally it just makes a game more difficult as you're under a pressure, even if it is purely a mental thing. In a game that's meant to test the mind, you should expect mental pressures. Luckily, the controls are quite easy to use!
Game Mechanics: Most of the puzzles in Puzzler Mind Gym 3D just use the touch screen and tell you where to tap. However, some will need the other controls as well and will explain when they are needed and exactly what you need to do with them. Fair warning though, make sure to read the instructions before you start the puzzle or you will most likely fail as it is not easy to figure out what the different puzzles want you to do. Some will have you tapping on letters in order, some will have you tapping on objects or numbers, and others will have you remembering things and answering questions, or counting things and keeping track of the totals in your head. No matter what the puzzle, the game is very good about telling you what you need to do and the controls are very accurate, so the only holdback is your talent. On the whole, I found Puzzler Mind Gym 3D to be quite entertaining and quite a challenge. It's probably not for the casual puzzler, but for those of you out there who have been looking for a bit more of a challenge, check out Puzzler Mind Gym 3D.
-Cyn, GameVortex Communications AKA Sara Earl
Related Links: Buy Puzzler Mind Gym 3D on Amazon
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