A Review of Thinksmart: Family for the Wii

Thinksmart: Family is a new game recently release for the Nintendo Wii by developer Independent Arts. Release on June 22, 2010, this game is made on the premise that it will help you improve memory, mathematics, spatial reasoning, and logic skills. They claim that it will help you think outside of the box by helping coordinate information gathered by both your left and right hemispheres of your brain individually. When playing this game, I enjoyed that they had a stat tracker which kept track of all of my progress. The games themselves were mediocre and very similar to many games found on the market today. However, when playing with a group of people or with a family, the competition helps make the game fun.

One feature that I thought was unnecessary was the tips that popped up. Tips appeared throughout the game to help you master each challenge. I feel that they made this game tailored to little kids instead of for the entire family. A little extra thinking never hurt anyone.

Thinksmart: Family doesn't have much replay value. You will play it for a week and forget about it until someone brings it up again. But it will bring the family together and it is a good way to bond with each other. I personally don't think that this game made me any smarter but I enjoyed playing this game for a few days. However, this game is more of a rent than a purchase game. Retailed at $29.99, I would suggest buying it used a week later for half the price or just renting it. The games get repetitive and there are many other options out there that are available for cheaper on ebay.

Conclusion

ThinkSmart has some addictive games/activities but many unoriginal and boring games. The replay value is poor and the price is too much. I would say rent the game if you intend to play this game by yourself. However, if you plan on playing this game with your family or a group of people, it might be worth purchasing.