The NDS seems to be the platform of choice for ‘self help’ games, and lots of shovelware too. I don’t know how many brain and puzzle games have come out to date, but to add to the pile is Challenge Me: Math Workout. It’s a workout alright; the parts of your brain that control frustration and boredom are going to flex a bit with this one.
Now I’m a fan of brain games and math. Brain Age and its sequel were excellent titles, and there have been several other good ones like Sega’s Brain Assist. Challenge Me is a much weaker title than these however; you’ll get a bare bones presentation, two game modes, and no ability to track your progress over time. The two modes are Hidden Logic! and Formulate, and they can be played with friends over Wi-Fi or you can challenge up to three computer opponents at once. There is also a mode to team up with a CPU player to take on two other CPU players if you can believe it.
The object of Hidden Logic! “is to guess the value of your own cards and the values of your opponents cards that are face up and face down.” There are two rules — the cards dealt will appear in order of their size, from left to right, and if you have two cards of the same number, the black card will be to the left of the white card. In addition to determining the number of players, you can also choose from one of eight avatars to represent you and your opponent. None of these avatars have any kind of backstory or anything like that, they’re just pictures, which is fine. You can also adjust a handful of other options like the amount of rounds to determine a win and how many cards (many or few) you want to begin with.
When the game begins, you pick a card and a hand is dealt to you. You can’t see most of your cards, but you do have to Open one of them to yourself and to your opponent. The idea is to literally guess what cards they have by looking at their exposed numbers, keeping in mind the ascending order that the cards are placed in. If you successfully guess your opponents card, you can choose to either “Attack” again or “Stay.” This game is as much about luck as it is math or logic; I got bored within minutes and it didn’t seem to be giving me any kind of brain ‘workout’ at all. There is a slight variation on this mode called Guess Hidden Logic whereby players try to turn all face down cards face up. According to the manual, there are 100 of these puzzles…
Speaking of the manual, it’s damn near useless. It doesn’t explain how to play these two games at all, and there is no help built into the game to get you going. If this were some type of established game that had just been digitized, maybe that would be understandable, but these are two games that it’s safe to say no one has played before. You gotta cater to the consumers better than that if you hope to compete in an already crowded market. Asking newcomers (i.e., everyone) to dive into these games and just work through the frustration is inexcusable, especially if your audience is children.
Anyway, the other mode offered on this cart is Formulate. Playing Formulate begins with the same type of options as Hidden Logic; you can adjust the time allowed per turn, your avatar, and so forth. Once the game begins, you’re given four cards (what’s with both games being based on cards?). These cards have a whole number on them, but they also have one of four math operations attached to them (add/subtract/multiply/divide). The idea is to arrange the cards in such a way that you have a number between 1 and 9 on the right hand side of the equation. On the left hand side, the other three numbers must be placed so that the equation is correct. The leftmost number will have its operator hidden. This sounds pretty easy, but in reality it’s not only difficult, but annoying. You rarely have the numbers you actually need to make a formula. You can get cards from the deck and from your opponent. Once again, the manual and the game do a really poor job in explaining any of this. The whole experience feels contrived and poorly presented and I was turned off by this even faster than Hidden Logic!
As far as presentation goes, Challenge Me: Math Workout is basic and boring. I wasn’t expecting Hotel Dusk quality visuals here, but something a little more engaging would have helped. Instead, Challenge Me features lackluster visuals and a forgettable audio package.
Ultimately, there isn’t anything redeeming about Challenge Me: Math Workout to justify the purchase. If you’re looking for a good brain or math game, this isn’t it. There are lots of other options that you should exhaust before this one.