Left Brain Right Brain
Score: 91% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: Majesco Games Developer: Japan Art Media Media: Cartridge/1 Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Puzzle/ Edutainment
Graphics & Sound: Haven't you ever wanted to be able to use your left hand (or right hand for all you lefties out there) to be able to do more complicated tasks, like write your name? Well, for all of us who would like to be able to do something complex with our non-dominant hand, there's now a DS game titled Left Brain, Right Brain to train you to be more ambidexterous. The graphics in Left Brain, Right Brain are very simple, which is good. When you're playing something that is supposed to be testing your brain, you don't want flashy things distracting you. All of the puzzles are easy to see and distinguish what you're supposed to do with the exception of one. The one puzzle that I wish had been set up differently was the one where you have to mimic the letters that appear. Unfortunately, the letters appear on the opposite screen from where you have to write, so you have to look back and forth, which costs time. Other than that though, I like the way the game was organized and how it looked. The background music in Left Brain, Right Brain is a very upbeat jingle. The music is fast enough that it's not going to slow you down as you play, but still un-distracting enough that it won't get on your nerves. The sound effects are minimal, mostly beeps and buzzers as you press the right or wrong buttons. I liked it much better this way, since you could tell how you were doing just by listening on a lot of them, and there weren't extra noises to get in the way.
Gameplay: When you start up Left Brain, Right Brain, you'll notice that you need to turn the DS sideways. Actually, you'll do a lot of flipping the DS over and over to play the game. The first option you'll see is Ambidexterity Check. It does exactly what it sounds like it would do. First, it asks you which hand is your good hand. Then it takes you through a series of tests to determine how fast you are with that hand. Afterwards, it has you turn the DS around and do the same test with your bad hand. Then, it compares them for you. The next option available is Exercises. Here, you'll create a profile to track your progress. You can have different profiles for up to four players. When you first create a profile, it has you enter a name and then tell it whether you are right or left handed. Then you'll notice you have several modes to select from. The first one is Left Hand (or Right Hand). Inside here, you have five levels to select from, each with three different tasks in them. Level one is the easiest, level five is the hardest. Once you select a level, if you've never played it before, it will have you play first with your dominant hand to get evaluation data to compare your non-dominant one to. After that, if you want to update your dominant hand data, which you should probably do at least every once in a while, you can select Data from the mode select. Another option inside Exercises is Balance. Balance essentially does the same thing as the Ambidexterity Check, but it stores your score inside your profile. The last option inside Exercises is L vs. R. In L vs. R, you navigate a maze. The first time you play it, it'll have you run the maze with your dominant hand. The game will record your exact path. When you then play it with your non-dominant hand, you'll see two balls on the screen. The red one will be following the exact pattern that it recorded before so that you can compete hand against hand. It's pretty cool actually. I played it again with my right hand competing against the recorded right hand path and it's weird how I followed almost the exact same path a week later, down to the slight swerves around curves. Left Brain, Right Brain also provides multiplayer modes. You can play against a friend with only one copy of the game by selecting to share your game.
Difficulty: Left Brain, Right Brain is not meant to be a difficult game. Granted, since you're required to use your non-dominant hand, you can consider that to be difficult. I'll be the first to admit that it is very hard to get used to, at first. I kept wanting to use my right hand to at least navigate the menus. Just to make sure you're using your non-dominant hand enough, the game orients itself so that you have to use that hand to navigate the menus and to do pretty much everything. The only time you'll use your dominant hand is to set the standard to compare to. I mentioned before that you should go back and update your dominant metrics for one simple reason. When you are first given the tests, you don't know exactly what they want you to do. The few seconds that it takes you to get used to the tests cause you to lose time off of what your best should be. On several tests, I actually did better with my left hand since I had already learned what to do on that puzzle with my right hand. It'll be very hard to get an accurate measure until you've updated your dominant stats at least once.
Game Mechanics: Left Brain, Right Brain is very easy to get the hang of playing. You'll use the touch screen for everything. There are three different types of puzzles that you'll have to deal with. The first requires you to have very good hand/eye coordination so that you can tap things on the screen very quickly. In some games, you'll have to hit the colored block, some of them you have to clear all the moving balls, and one you have to just tap as fast as you can to clear the bricks away. The main common factor is that you are tapping things. The second type of puzzle requires you to keep the stylus on the screen and move it around. In some of the games, you'll be avoiding falling asteroids, or maybe connecting dots, or navigating a maze. They all require fine motor coordination to get the stylus right where you want it to go. The last type of game is writing. You'll be presented with letters that you have to copy and then tap done. So it combines the first two since you have to have the fine motor coordination to write the letters and then hand/eye coordination to tap the done button. Honestly, it is not very picky on your handwriting ability. A lot of the time it will accept non-legible letters. Every once in a while though, I would have trouble with something simple, like getting I correct. Overall, I really liked Left Brain, Right Brain. The puzzles were simple to pick up on, but challenging enough that I didn't get bored with them. Plus, I improved my dexterity by 4 or 5% in two weeks. Not bad if you ask me. It's a game that you can keep with you for a quick play when you need something to do while waiting for anything. If you like puzzles or really want to make your bad hand work better, I recommend you go pick it up.
-Cyn, GameVortex Communications AKA Sara Earl
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