Ultimate Brain Games

"Remember when games came in cardboard boxes and were played on tabletops?"

Ultimate Brain Games is a compendium of eight traditional board games put together to provide you with many happy hours of cognitively stimulating entertainment. There really is nothing else like it available for the GBA at present, due not only to the number of playable games here, but also because of the types of games included. You can play Sink Ships (like Battleships), Mahjong, Backgammon, Chess, Checkers, Reversi, Dominoes and Four In A Row (Connect 4) all in either single player or multiplayer mode. It's a very nice idea, not perfectly executed, but given how ambitious the premise is here, they did an extremely good job with a very difficult subject.

Now, the variety of games is excellent. However, they are simply not all suited for play on a GBA. The main problem is that the GBA screen is small, and the developers have tried to cram the equivalent of a board game onto this small screen. For certain games, it does work and there is no problem. But for other games - especially Mahjong, sadly - this leads to much squinting, as the game pieces are barely visible. However, there really wasn't anything that could have been done to solve this problem, and your eyes do adjust to playing on a small screen eventually. To be fair, the pieces in the games are quite clear so once you're used to the different shapes, it's not too bad. It's certainly worth persevering. The situation isn't helped by the fact that the game is somewhat dark, even when backlit.

Games all follow the traditional rules of play. Single player mode involves facing the artificial intelligence, or in the case of Mahjong, playing solitaire. Multiplayer works very similarly to single player mode, but two players must take turns on the same console to act out their moves. The artificial intelligence comes with a range of difficulty settings, so you can tailor the games to your own abilities. At their easiest levels they're good for beginners to get the hang of the game, and at their most difficult they will provide a real challenge for even the most adept players.

There are extra features which add negligable value to the game, the main one being the ''Face Creator'', which allows you to create your own player with options for hair, eye shape, clothing, and a frighteningly huge array of other customizable options. This has no impact on the game whatsoever, but it acts as a mild diversion for half an hour or so until the novelty wears off. In-game options are exceptional in their quantity and diversity. Mahjong offers at least 20 different options for tile layout alone. Whilst some of these options have a genuine impact on game play and allow for extra flexibility (including the above mentioned), most are superficial and at best only mild additions to the game as a whole. Still, it's good to have such a wide range of customization available to you, and rare to see so much thought put into the styling.

The graphics are functional but basic. It is a good thing that they didn't go over-the-top here as it would not have been necessary given the nature of the game. They are well thought-out and do the games justice. Sound is vomit-inducingly appalling. Although there are a variety of tracks, they all sound pretty much the same. Imagine what would happen if you gave an old lady a 1980s synthesizer and told her to write a tune - dodgy electronica with a repetitive backbeat is what passes for ''music'' here. Just turn it off!

The replay value is virtually infinite, given the nature of the game and the sheer scope of options available (so many options! Who needs all those options anyway?). Most people will have at least heard of if not played the majority of these games. Overall, the result is a good one. An ambitious project tackled very skillfully. I certainly recommend it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/13/04