Can budget brain training title "Best of Tests DS" help you raise your IQ? Find out in our review

At the budget end of the brain training game spectrum is "Best of Tests DS". This title is marketed as an IQ tester and can be obtained quite cheaply on E-bay, but even at a budget price, is it worth your money?

Best of Tests DS is supposedly based on a standard IQ test. The makers claim that this makes it ideal for practising should you ever have to sit the real thing. From the games main menu, we're given four options, "Intelligence Tests", "Memory Tests", "Training" and "Results". Since the bulk of the game lies in the Intelligence Tests we'll dive into those first.

Answers on a postcard...

The intelligence tests are a little similar to what you might expect to encounter in a regular brain training game. You'll encounter maths puzzles, like correct change, observational tests, complete the number sequence and vocabulary based tests like finding a word which means the opposite to the word given. Disappointingly, after giving a wrong answer, you are not shown the correct answer. Some of the questions, particularly the "find the next domino in a sequence" are pretty obscure, it would have been nice if solutions were given at some point. Then again, this would let you improve your score simply by remembering all the questions.

That's not to say all the questions are difficult. In fact, far too many are laughably easy. Expect to be asked to find the next number in a sequence such as "1,2,3,4,5", and yes the answer is 6. More amusingly we were asked "Find a word with a meaning close to darkness", one of the possible answers was "darkness". Throw in the odd silly spelling mistake ("order" spelled "ordre") and even at a budget price, Best of Tests DS starts to look a lot less appealing.

The memory tests are presented in the same way as the intelligence tests. Usually they involve memorising symbols, numbers or sequences. Practise mode simply lets you try challenges from different categories. So, for example, if you struggle with the vocabulary tests you can practise them here.

Finally, there's the results section. This is possibly the most disappointing part of an already disappointing package. While the games packaging and manual promotes the game as an IQ builder, the results section makes no effort to measure your IQ at all. The only score you are given is for the number of tests passed and the number of perfect scores. While the typical brain age/weight scores given by other titles are not regarded as being scientifically accurate they are at least fun and give you something to aim for. Best of Tests feels more like school work than any of the other brain training titles and you don't even get a gold star if you do well.

Overall, its hard to get excited about Best of Tests DS. Playing the game isn't tremendous fun and the lack of a decent scoring system makes it unrewarding. Even at a budget price this game is unlikely to hold your attention for too long. It was the best of tests, it was the worst of tests, at least in our DS brain training game round-up anyway.

3/10

Adjusted Scores

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