The DS Thinking Game Thread.
 

Last updated 7/17/2008

I'm doing this thread aside from the Official DS thread because I would like an easily accessible list of DS thinking games. I think it is unique because never before has this level and amount of thinking video games been in existence. It is not just a glut of thinking games, they are quality thinking games. I'll keep this updated as new titles come out.

In no particular order...

1. Picross
2. QuickSpot
3. Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day
4. Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day
5. The New York Times Crosswords
6. Big Brain Academy
7. Polarium
8. Neves - This is a tangram game.
9. Spelling Challenges And More! - yes, the ! is part of the title :D
10. Math Play - also known as Genius DS – Equal Cards.
11. CrossworDS - has three sections - Crosswords, word search, and anagrams. The word search is awesome and has 100 puzzles. At ~3 minutes to complete each one (and it will take much more than that), that's 15 hours for just a third of the game.
12.. My Word Coach - Vocabulary-building game


I'm not including Sudoku games because those reproduce faster than rabbits :)



JIGSAW PUZZLE GAMES
These are all I found. If you find more let me know!
1. Jigsaw Puzzle DS - de Meguru Sekai Isan no Tabi (JP)
2. Yukkuri Tanoshimu Otona no Jigsaw Puzzle DS - Sekai no Meiga 1 (JP)
3. Yukkuri Tanoshimu Otona no Jigsaw Puzzle DS - Sekai no Meiga 2 (JP)
4. Puzzle Series - Jigsaw Puzzle - Koinu Mekuri Hen (JP)
5. Puzzle Series - Jigsaw Puzzle Oden Kun (JP)
6. Puzzle Series - Jigsaw Puzzle Oden Kun 2 (JP)
7. Jigsaw World - Daigekitou Jig-Battle Heroes (JP)
8. DS Puzzle Series 1: Jigsaw Puzzles (JP)

Kind of esoteric, but I have a Japanese-English dictionary, and a Kanji practice tool for DS (only available in Japan though). Apart from that, there's a new brain age coming out soon right?

If you're going to count Japanese games, that list balloons to 600. Seriously, they're on Brain Age 5 or 6 over there.

Nah I'm only counting games I can read :D I soooo want to learn Japanese just so that I can play more games.

Yeah, I know, I only really threw them out there as "games" that us dudes might actually play / use. When it comes down to it, most of those brain training type games in Japan do require knowledge of the language for at least some of the exercises, so they're really not playable. Apart from that, I'm pretty sure there's still only Brain Age 1 and 2, assuming you're talking only about the official ones.

As I've mentioned earlier, Nintendo is coming out with their own crossword puzzle game sometime in the near future. Looks to be fairly similar to the sudoku games in Brain Age.

CC has several "brain" games on sale for 14.99 this week including Brain Age and Brain Age 2. I'm thinking of picking one up. Which is better?

I'm looking forward to "Eye Training." Sounds interesting.

I really loved Picross and I still play the Hudson published Sudoku game on my DS, but the New York Times Crossword game is killing me. I can handle Monday and Tuesday, but by Wednesday I'm spending all my time looking up the answers online. I just don't have a mind for crosswords this hard.

I'm considering Brain Age 2, but I got bored with the first one and Big Brain Academy pretty quickly.

I'm playing Brain Age 2 right now. It's structured identically to the previous version, but includes a more diverse selection of mini-games. They added a rock/paper/scissors game for checking age, which is more effective with the voice recognition than the colors in the original. Sudoku puzzles are included again as well as a hybrid Dr. Mario type mini-game.

Both are great games, but BA2 is defintely superior.

On this rainy Monday morning, I thought this thread was titled "The DS Drinking Game Thread" :)

Thanks for the mini-review, Flay. Appreciated!

I dont have any of these type of games but id like to try one.I think i will stay away from the crossword puzzles ones though and maybe grab Picross or one of the Brain Age ones.

Brain Age is great if you like Sudoku.

I do :)

How does BBA compare to BA? I didn't really get into BA (which was a freebie for me). I hated yelling at my DS especially. I've read BBA is more game-like. Is it really more fun?

I like both BBA and BA. BA2 has a (so far that I have unlocked) piano-playing game, count what place in a race a runner finishes, (my favorite) form a word with scrambled letters, make change, etc. BBA has a find the mathematical sign that fits the equation, find the pairs in a stack, patter recognition, etc. I'd say get ALL the games in this thread :D (they're usually $20 or so each).

I liked BA a whole lot, but I'm having trouble getting into BA2. I don't like any of the games that involve sound, don't like piano, the one where multiple words is said was tough, but doable. Only did the rock paper scissors one once, and found it had an awful time recognizing my statements...

Complete solution guide to Picross: http://faqs.ign.com/articles/784/784007p1.html

The Rock Scissors Paper in BA2 is odd. It recognizes my voice fine, but it cannot tell when my wife says "scissors".

I have some problems with the writing. Every time I write an "=" it's recognized as a "+". WTF?

Overall, I love the game though (it's my first foray into this kind of game).

picross is awesome, the stylus makes it 10 x better than the GB versions.

also polarium would qualify for your list

Same thing with my girlfriend and I. The game has no problem recognizing my voice, but it cannot recognize her scissors at all. It's worse than the voice recognition of "Blue" in the original Brain Age.

I think the stylus makes it far more difficult on the 15x15 puzzles. Zooming in and out is a complete pain. Thankfully you can switch to d-pad control.

I chose Picross for my first DS puzzle game.Seems good so far :up:

i dont use the zoom feature very much, mostly i use top screen to see the overall view. instead, i mostly use the move mode (the arrows in a plus formation) touch the stylus to the screen, hold it down, and then drag to the location i want to go, the screen will move with the stylus. that feature alone is what makes stylus > dpad for me