Review of Puzzler Mind Gym 3D

As originally published on Examiner.com

I recently received a free review copy of Ubisoft's new mind bender Puzzler Mind Gym 3D for the Nintendo 3DS. Unlike other puzzle games Puzzler Mind Gym 3D managed to keep my interest for well over 20 hours, however there are several glaring problems with the title that prevent it from being the best in the genre.

In Puzzler Mind Gym 3D players are put through a 90-day program of daily challenges by "Professor Ian Robertson: neuroscientist and world expert on cognitive rehabilitation," who will give you advise during play and tips on how to exercise your mind.

Each of the sessions in Puzzler Mind Gym 3D are labeled with a number from 1 to 90, and the game slowly increases in difficulty. Every session features four "warm up" mini-games in one of each of the following categories: Memory, Word, Visual, and Numerical. By successfully passing each of the warm up mini-games you'll be given access to an additional four daily "challenges".

None of the mini-games last longer than a couple of minutes (shorter if you figure out the puzzle quickly). After completing each challenge you'll unlock a tip to increase your memory or random fact about the human brain. The entire "day" usually lasts around fifteen minutes.

There's no limit to how many sessions that you can play in one day though - however I found that couldn't spend more than an hour at a time with Puzzler Mind Gym 3D before taking a break. That's OK though, since you're only supposed to complete only one Puzzler Mind Gym 3D session a day anyways.

The Games:

Word Games

In "Alphabetical" you are given a sentence or two of words and the goal is to click on the letters in alphabetical order. Examples include "The wolf zombies quickly spotted the jinxed grave." and "Jack quietly moved forward and seized the big pink ball of candle wax." To make things more interesting, you'll have to click on letters in reverse alphabetical order as you advance in Puzzler Mind Gym 3D.

In "Honeycomb" you are provided with a list of words to search for in a "Honeycomb." This isn't your typical word search though - words can move backwards and the letters can snake around themselves. Finding words removes parts of the "Honeycomb" making it easier to scan for your next answer. "Honeycomb" ended up being one of my favorite games in Puzzler Mind Gym 3D.

In "Mind the Gap," you are presented with words that are missing three letters. You'll have to fill in the gap with a three letter word to create a word full word. For instance, with ST###IL by entering ENC you'll get the word STENCIL. Sounds easy enough, right? Wrong.

The problem that I encountered with "Mind the Gap" was that after a few "weeks" of playing and an increase of difficulty (Session 27 for me) you'll fail. When you fail in "Mind the Gap" the answers aren't revealed. There are no hints, and additional letters aren't revealed. That means if you can't correctly guess enough words and get a passing score of C you'll be unable to play the four additional challenges for that day.

Those who might not be as linguistically skilled can easily end up missing a large portion of the content in Puzzler Mind Gym 3D through failing because they're unable to play any of the challenges to sessions where "Mind the Gap" was a "warm up".

In "Spelling Bee," you are shown a word and then asked to spell it backwards. The deeper into Puzzler Mind Gym 3D you get, the longer the words in "Spelling Bee" become.

In "Word Confetti," you're given a category of words to find. Words drop through both of the 3DS screens at varying speeds while also turning in different directions. To make the game more complicated, in later levels there will be multiple words overlapping at all times with other objects also obstructing the view. This makes it difficult to select the correct answers because it is easy to hit another word - especially if the correct choice is buried under three other words.

One quip I had with "Word Confetti" is that Puzzler Mind Gym 3D doesn't tell you the words you may have missed. Due to the portable nature of the Nintendo 3DS, one won't necessarily have access to a dictionary or the internet in order to look up obscure words like "Glazier" right after playing. It would have been nice if all missed words were displayed at the end, along with their definitions to make for a greater learning experience - especially for younger players.

Visual Games

"What's Next" shows players several objects with a progressing pattern. You'll have to figure out "What's Next" to appear from four choices. The objects start with simple patterns and become intricate designs, making "What's Next" always a fun challenge.

"Maze Escape's" name is a misnomer. In "Maze Escape" you're presented with a top down view of a person walking through a twisting pathway. You can make them turn left or right, however they aren't really walking through a real maze. Whenever you reach a turning point your character stops and becomes in peril from falling as the block of steps on your trail fade away.

With "Block Party" players try to discern how many blocks are missing from grid. There's no way to move the grid without receiving a penalty. The only way the grid turns is if you enter an incorrect answer - which will deduct from your highest possible score.

In "Odd One Out" you're shown a large colored pattern, and several segments from it. One of the segments is the "Odd One Out" and not part of the larger pattern. Your job is to deduce which of the pieces is the "Odd One Out." As you work through each of the sessions, the pattern gets larger and the differences become smaller - to the point where a single colored block might be the only difference.

Numerical Games

In "Feed the Frog" you'll "Feed the Frog" by tapping on it every time a fly comes by with a number divisible by the value on the frog's chest. The numbers on the frog's chest always remain relatively low, but the numbers on the flies climb high.

In "Bubble Maths" you'll tap numbers and mathematical symbols floating around in bubbles to form an equation that results in the displayed numerical value. Forget what you were taught in school though, because in "Bubble Maths" all that matters is reading from left to right.

For instance, in lesson 19 the equation ignores PEMDAS, short for "Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally" - a phrase commonly learned to teach students the proper way to carry out mathematical equations (Parenthesis, Exponents, Multiplication, Addition, and Subtraction). The correct answer to the equation is 32, and the game asks for 5+3+8x2. Yet if you were to follow PEMDAS you'll receive an answer of 24 from the equation 5+3+8x2.

In "Beat the Cashier" you're shown items and prices, and have to give the total for the purchase before the cashier has the chance to ring them all up. It's a simple math game, yet you'll start to receive odd dollar amounts that will leave you still counting while the next item's price is shown.

In "Futoshiki" you're given a number grid that must be filled and adhere to the greater than or smaller signs without using the same number twice in any row or column. This puzzle starts with a 3x3 grid and one symbol / number, and advances up to a 5x5 grid with numerous symbols and fixed numbers. Making an illogical entry will highlight contesting numbers in red so that you can analyze the puzzle quicker.

"See Saw" presents players with several scales holding combinations of differently colored balls. The goal is to figure out the weights of each colored ball. You start off with three different weighted balls, and work your way up to dealing with five.

Memory Games

You're presented a list of items to buy in "Memory Shop," and you'll have to "buy" the items as they pass by you on a conveyer belt. The difficulty cranks up high in "Memory Shop" once you're asked to purchase eight, nine, or ten items. You'll have to learn to use the trick of grouping two items together like "bread and milk" instead of individual items "bread" and "milk" in order to succeed in this game.

In "Altered Images" you're shown six objects for ten seconds, and then asked several questions. Which two objects have switched positions, which one wasn't in the original line up, and which was altered. Altered Images starts off innocent enough with simple solid objects such as a star or heart, however they turn into complex designs and drawings.

Like altered images, in "Attention to Detail" you're presented with several objects. However this time you'll be asked questions like how many triangles were on the screen total, how many objects were green, and how many of a specific shape were a certain color.

In "Safe Cracker" you need to memorize a six digit number to open a safe. When you enter a combination wrong the correct sequence is displayed again to help out. Unlike the other games found in Puzzle Mind Gym 3D, "Safe Cracker" doesn't get harder. Even in session 70, it is still a six number sequence and displayed with the same amount of time.

Parents should be aware that one of the categories found in several of the mini-games in Puzzler Mind Gym 3D is "Alcohol." Your child will be seeing and searching for words like Rum, Beer, Tequila, and Scotch among others.

One pet peeve that I had with Puzzler Mind Gym 3D is that there's no way to select just a certain type of game to play. I could have easily spent an hour crunching numbers in "Futoshiki," searching for words in "Honeycomb" or figuring out "What's Next," however Puzzler Mind Gym 3D forces players to go through each of the daily session menus to find a specific game. Adding a "free play" mode would be a welcome addition to any future installments in the Puzzler Mind Gym franchise.

Because Puzzler Mind Gym 3D requires a diverse set of skills (linguistics, mathematics, visual / spatial, and memory), it is very likely for players to fail one of the "warm ups," especially in later daily sessions of the game. Unfortunately that leaves a great deal of the content inaccessible, especially to younger audiences.

The 3D in Puzzler Mind Gym 3D felt more like an afterthought. Puzzler Mind Gym 3D is only the first puzzle game to take full advantage of the Nintendo 3DS 3D capabilities, and it shows. The games all feature the same blue swirling background, making for a total lack of variety. One of the problems though is that word games simply aren't that conducive to being seen in 3D. "Word Confetti" makes an attempt, however of all the puzzles bundled with the game it was only in "Block Party" that the 3D of the Nintendo 3DS made the most meaningful impact when viewed in 3D.

Puzzler Mind Gym 3D offers a wide variety of brain teasing games that will keep your mind active. There's over 24 hours of content, however one can easily find themselves spending a great deal longer with the title once they've reached the higher levels and find themselves failing and needing to repeat individual games until you succeed or give up in aggravation.

Puzzler Mind Gym 3D is available on the Nintendo 3DS for an msrp of $39.99.

For more information about Puzzler Mind Gym 3D, go here.

For more information about Ubisoft, visit www.ubi.com.