I don't know what it is, why do we feel compelled to play these brain-style games that make us feel like we aren't exercising our brains enough? Trust me, after helping children do homework, balancing the checkbook, reading a book on statistics, making dinner and then playing my prerequisite game of online poker, the last thing I need to be doing is playing a brain game. But since it's my job and I kinda like a challenge, I figured, why not. I mean, I practically ripped through Brain Age, destroyed Puzzle Quest and ate a bowl of Frosted Flakes in like, two minutes, I figured how difficult could another brain/puzzle style game be, should be no problem, right? Well, that's the problem, there was no problem.

 
 "I got it, right?"

Brain Assist makes no qualms about it - this is a game that drives straight for the right side of the brain. Relying on colors and shapes to exercise the brain is fine with the series of 10 different mini-games, but then things get kind of strange. There are four sister/nurses who appear and kind of direct you and cheer you on as you work towards getting the right side of your brain healthy, these nurses do nothing really for the game, they are too cutesy to be hot anime babes and too silly to provide any sort of clever wit. Every once in a while a fifth nurse named Eva shows up and lays down the law with harder challenges (moves you up to the next levels).

Now the game has you picking differences between pictures that may or may not have differences, counting numbers or finding letters in order when different sizes and colors try and befuddle you, finding the same picture amidst a sea of pictures and other right-brained ideas. The graphics are pretty colorful and fit the game the way it should, but that just really means the game is almost kid-designed in mind and with lots of bright colors. I did, however, appreciate the music, which I could see becoming annoying after a while. An upbeat-almost-disco feel that worked well with the game and visuals.  

Back to the game, it is disappointing in how it relays how you did during the tests. Initially there is a scoring system when you first are evaluated, but then things just sort of fall apart. As you progress, you are left feeling like you don't know how well you are improving or not improving. You do play each game until you make three mistakes, so there is the idea of challenging yourself and all that stuff, but it is as if the game sort of drops the ball on how your progress is calculated and maintained. I kept expecting to be told that I needed to work on "X" or that I was slipping in "Y," but that never happened so I felt sort of robbed in my brain-game experience. I guess I was expecting more smarts in my brain-assist game.

 
"I'm an idiot."

Now one of the games more endearing qualities is the fact it has single-card download play. By playing against others you can have some good-natured fun with the competition showing who has the healthier right brain. It is basically a round-robin style of play with the same challenges being presented to the (up to four) players and a winner being determined by the scores at the end. I liked this because we have such a healthy competition when it comes to puzzle style games in the David household.

Not much else here, the game is what it is. It could have been a bit deeper, It could have had additional puzzles, but for a brain game it isn't too bad. There are better brain-style games out there, and there are certainly worse. I almost would say this is a game that is more for a 11-14 year old kid.

Gameplay: 7.0
Simple, easy, nothing too challenging.

Graphics: 6.7
They are very simple, yet colorful and "pop;" I couldn't help but think this was almost a Saturday morning cartoon brain game.

Sound: 6.0
While entirely appropriate, it can get annoying after a while.

Difficulty: Easy

Concept: 6.0
Nothing new, some clever ideas, but nothing ground breaking.

Multiplayer: 7.0
The game gets some legs with the multiplayer aspect, with the right person, there is some additional enjoyment found in there.

Overall: 6.4
Like I said, this is a pretty simple brain game and certainly nothing new for the genre. If you don't have a brain game then this isn't a bad start; if you have other games in this vein, you may not need to pop this into your system.