Get fit with

Mind Quiz – Platinum Sudoku

Not only the body, but also the brain needs a workout. Puzzle games have been around for thousands of years - and with the advent of the digital age, they have also found their way onto the world's computers. Brain games on portable platforms are particularly practical - what a Sudoku or puzzle book is for some people, Nintendo DS owners have "Platinum Sudoku" or "Mind Quiz".

The boom in Nintendo DS games for more mental fitness began with "Dr. Kawashima's Brain Jogging". In this game, several users can create their own profiles and determine the age of their brain with a number of tests. According to Nintendo, those who regularly play the math problems, speed and memory games can increase their mental fitness.

This is exactly how the recently released "Mind Quiz" works - create a profile, test your brain and then increase your performance with various games. However, it is not the age of the brain that is measured here, but mental fitness and the degree of relaxation - anyone who plays tired or distracted is presented with the bill in the form of warning messages.

The games take advantage of the double screen as well as the touch-sensitive surface and the microphone. Blowing balloons into the air, coloring surfaces while keeping a running dog in check, performing simple calculations, arranging figures correctly, smashing glass - the games are not intellectually demanding, but they do require concentration and speed. While using the touchscreen usually works smoothly, a game with voice recognition almost always turns into a war of nerves with the DS microphone - not excluding screaming fits for sensitive people.

If you don't let this stop you, play regularly and complete all the tasks, you can soon enjoy a new unlocked level.

Sudoku and Kakuro
"Platinum Sudoku" picks up on THE trend of last year, the number game Sudoku. Here the digits from one to nine have to be entered into fields, the simple game principle allows children and adults alike to have tricky thinking fun. Also included is "Kakuro", where a number has to be broken down according to the available squares. If there is a 7 in the box and three free spaces, 1, 2 and 4 must be entered in these - as no number may appear twice in a column or row. Sounds confusing? It's not.

The first thing you notice about both games is that the fields are quite small. No problem for eagle-eyed players, but people with poor eyesight are likely to despair, especially with Kakuro. In both games, the player can either write the numbers themselves with a stylus or select them using squares - which is the better idea for people with poorly legible handwriting. Gamers can unlock new skins, fonts and mini-games at ever-increasing intervals. The latter are very entertaining, even if they are not always new (such as the mine search game).

The suboptimal solution is that in Kakuro, the possible combinations are visible at the click of a button - so there is usually no need to do the math yourself, making the game far too easy compared to the paper version. In Sudoku, the player has a certain number of points available for each game. This allows them to "buy" a digit if they get stuck.

Conclusion: The "Mind Quiz" could have used more intellectually exciting games. Apart from that, it doesn't have the same addictive factor as "Dr. Kawashima's Brain Jogging", mainly because there are relatively few games available at the beginning. Apart from that, the classification into "relaxed" and "stressed" brain is debatable.

In addition to the eponymous game, "Platinum Sudoku" also offers Kakuro, a laudable idea. However, the presentation of the games is unexciting, with only the funny mini-games offering any variety. However, anyone who likes the two puzzle games will certainly enjoy the DS version.

Platform: Nintendo DS
Publisher: Ubisoft
Krone.at rating: "Mind Quiz": 74 %; "Platinum Sudoku": 81 %

by Bernadette Geißler