Gamermall.com rating: N/A

Brain Voyage takes the brain game genre, but puts the player into situations that have some sort of relevance to the real world. So instead of just playing a game where we spot the differences in pictures, we traveled to India to help correct their train shipments after a computer meltdown.

Each scenario is something along these lines. The player accompanies Dr. Reiner Knizia, an award winning puzzle game designer. He's like the German version of Dr. Kawashima, only he makes Lord of the Rings board games. Unfortunately he doesn't seem to speak, not even in the intro cinematics, which is a shame. If we're going to be traveling the world with him it'd help to connect a little more. Plus, we've been meaning to practice our German (Ich bin ein Kritiker).

So Reiner takes us all over the world, and every city is a new game. In Las Vegas he's designed a new way to play poker, a sort of tic-tac-toe/poker amalgamation. In Greenland we're playing minesweeper in the ice. Players go all over the world, from Cape Town, South Africa, to Moscow, to Beijing. Every minigame is themed for the specific area. For instance, the Alarm minigame in Paris takes place in the Louvre, with famous paintings in the background.

Most of the games are pretty standard puzzle minigames, so it'll be familiar to fans of the genre. The presentation of it is what makes Brain Voyage different.

As players compete in the games they earn coins. The coins are used to buy new cities, and harder levels of the game. The harder games allow players to earn more awards and more coins. This system opens the game up more than other brain games do, since it allows players to get a custom experience. We aren't the biggest fans of math, so were less inclined to buy new levels for the London Bank minigame, and more inclined to go purchase the Syndey Australia city level.

Brain Voyage should be travelling to stores in April, so you've got plenty of time to book your trip. We've got some screens below to give you a taste.

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