Most of the puzzles in The Lost Mind of Dr. Brain require significant mathematical and/or strategic reasoning. Eight of the nine puzzles focus primarily on planning, logic, memory, spatial visualization and geometry in a variety of contexts. Only one puzzle, Synaptic Cleft, involves little math. In this puzzle, the user must apply forces to moving neurotransmitters to guide them into the synapse before they collide with the surrounding tissue. Although this activity requires thought and strategy, the pace is sometimes too fast to actually plan well.

One of the most successful puzzles is the 3D construction site . The player must duplicate a 3D block model by placing individual blocks on a multi-level grid. Both the model and the player's construction can be rotated to check the correspondence from all four sides. Working on this puzzle exercises a player's spatial skills, in particular being able to see correspondences between 2-dimensional pictures of a structure and what the 3-dimensional building must look like. While it is strictly possible to get the answer to this puzzle by trial-and-error, it would be enormously long, tedious, and error-prone; most players use the information they can get from the models to guide their building and, in the process, enhance their skills in geometry, especially 3D visualization. Neural Maze, a related activity that is somewhat less successful, requires the player to navigate a 3D maze using only 2D information. The interface to this puzzle is somewhat confusing and the mathematical content isnšt as clearly defined.

Another puzzle with substantial mathematical content is Robot Programming , which involves giving instructions to a robot to move around a grid to collect pieces of Dr. Brain's missing brain - and to avoid dangerous enemies who might eat it. While this activity has something in common with Pac-Man (mostly the look of the board), it is mostly an exercise in planning and visualization. Commands move the robot forward and backward and turn it right and left and a significant amount of advance planning is necessary to guide the robot successfully, especially at the more difficult levels.

The remaining puzzles all call upon players' problem-solving, memory, and strategic skills - which to my mind are "mathematical" in a deeper sense than simple numerical problems would be. These vary in quality but in general present problems that are complex enough to elicit a variety of approaches. Most of these are well suited for working cooperatively, since they are not time-limited and offer rich problems players can discuss.

There are a few difficulties, though. Some of the puzzles require a significant amount of knowledge before the player can approach them, even at the easiest level. For example, the Music area asks players to rearrange eight written bars of music to fit a specific tune. The bars may be in the wrong place or flipped horizontally or vertically. It would be impossible to even begin this activity without a fairly extensive knowledge of music notation and a practiced ear. A similar - but significantly worse - problem exists with the Pentode game , where players must match sign language letters with their sound. Ironically, a deaf person couldn't play this game (or, for that matter, several of the others that require sound, e.g. Music).

As an unobtrusive sidelight, the scorekeeping system involves percents and, thus, provides a chance for players to work with proportional relationships.

Is the Game Equitable?

Two of the three characters in The Lost Mind of Dr. Brain appear to be male. Dr. Brain is clearly a man and Rathbone the rat, who appears in every puzzle, dressed differently each time, seems more male than female. The other character is the female lab assistant, who is the source of both instructions and hints. There is no violence in the activities and no overwhelmingly male themes. Few of the puzzles involve either hand-eye coordination or time pressure. There is no competition and plenty of opportunity for collaboration.

There is considerable variety in the activities, partly because of the gamešs commitment to engaging different aspects of the player's abilities, such as spatial, musical, mathematical, and verbal. This variety plus the choice of levels (controlled by the player) makes it very likely that every player will find something enjoyable to do. This may not be true, however, for children near the lower end of the recommended age range (12), who may find even the lowest levels too much to attempt. The higher levels of the puzzles will challenge just about anyone.

Is the Game a Good Game?

This game does not present either a narrative or any memorable characters; the appeal is primarily in the puzzles themselves. There are a few clever touches when Rathbone the Rat shows up in different guises in each puzzle, but these jokes wear thin after a while.

The structure of this game is loose; the player can choose to play any puzzle at any level at any time. Some players will be intrigued by a few puzzles and spend their time setting their own challenges. For others, some of the puzzles will be too difficult, and because there is no way to get the answer to an especially hard puzzle, the potential for frustration here is considerable. The complex instructions, provided orally by the lab assistant or in the printed documentation, may be another deterrent for some players. It would be important to make sure your child is finding the appropriate level of challenge.

The eventual goal of the game is to complete each brain area to get the final "prize" of Dream Land. But Dream Land is never referred to during the game; a player would only know about it by reading the accompanying instructions. In order to get to Dream Land, a player has to complete each of the nine brain areas. Because some of the puzzles may be inaccessible to a particular player (e.g. Music), it can be frustrating to try to "finish." Even for players who can make progress on every puzzle, the amount of time and effort required to get to Dream Land may be discouraging. But for many children (and adults), The Lost Mind of Dr. Brain can provide an engaging approach to interesting and complex problem solving.