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A Little Bit of Brain Training: Arts Edition is a downloadable DSi game that pulls together some of the more artistically minded mini-games from Brain Training 1 and 2. Although that means there's nothing here to push your Maths skills to the limit, there's plenty that'll test your spelling, music and artistic abilities instead, in a great collection of mini-games that's perfect for pick up and play fun.
Included are six games: Masterpiece Recital, which asks you to push the right key on a virtual piano as the cursor moves over a note on the top screen; Word Buster, which flashes a word up on screen, then asks you to spell it from memory; Reading Aloud, which tasks you with simply reading a few pages from a classic novel "out loud", pushing the button when you're done; Word Scramble, which sees you unravelling a series of anagrams; Photo Memory, which flashes up an image, then asks you to choose which one you saw from a number of inversions, and finally, Meet and Greet, which shows you a number of people, along with their names and occupations, then asks you to remember who's who. For a budget price, you're getting plenty of bang for your buck!
In terms of its suitability for children, though, Brain Training: Arts Edition certainly isn't aimed at the youngest of kids - anyone who wants to tangle with this will need to be able to read, and spell some fairly complex words from memory (discombobulate?). The ability to read sheet music would also be a plus, but as you'd probably hope from a game like Brain Training, your child will find themselves getting a lot better as time goes on, getting faster at spelling, learning to read sheet music easier, and perhaps even finding their way around anagrams. It's not the sort of thing someone who's just learning to read will want to take on, but if you fancy brushing up the English skills of a fairly confident reader, this could be a good one to pick up.
A puzzle game with an educational twist, there's nothing for parents to worry about in A Little Bit of Brain Training: Arts Edition.
Age Ratings
Format Reviewed: Nintendo DS
