It’s strange trying to review a game clearly not meant for you; such is the case with The Amazing Brain Train, a WiiWare release that takes the ’mental mini-game compilation’ format of Brain Age and wraps it up in a childlike theme revolving around cute animals. It’s obviously meant for kids and their parents, and since I’m a ’core gamer’ in my late 20s I’m obviously not going to have the same appreciation for it that they are. But when I try to look at it from their perspective, I see a WiiWare title that does a fair job of earning the six bucks it’s asking for.

Played using just the Wiimote as a point-and-click device, The Amazing Brain Train presents you with a rapid-fire series of puzzles on a variety of topics. It can range from simple ’speed math’ equations, to having to solve a sliding puzzle board, or even tracking how many monkeys are in each bush as they scramble all about the screen. There are about a dozen or so mini-games, each lasting no more than a few minutes (though they often have different content each time) and most of them are immediately intuitive to play though some instructions are provided. It’s all presented in a simple yet colorful and whimsical style that should appeal to kids, too.

The obvious comparison for this game would be Nintendo’s own Brain Age series, though Amazing Brain Train is admittedly more limited in scope. That is pretty easy to forgive however, since this game only costs six dollars. Even so, some of these mini-games have decent depth to them; one that stands out requires you to lay down a grid of mirrors to reflect warming light onto a group of koalas lost in the arctic. Adults will have no problem with puzzles like that, but these should feel sufficiently clever for children without being too hard.

Beyond the mini-games themselves, there are a few features worth noting. First is the existence of a ’quest mode’; it gives the player a basic plot to follow by helping various animals with their problems, and you have to travel from place to place by solving puzzles which in turn power the train and move it around the map. This is all very basic stuff, mostly an excuse to keep them playing the mini-games. Said quest mode is optional though, since you can also ’free play’ the mini-games as you unlock more of them through doing well in the initially available set of games. In addition, a series of in-game trophies and achievements are available; obvious equivalents to the achievements seen in some games on Steam and many on the Xbox 360, and while I personally don’t care for them they also don’t harm the product any, so this is fine.

The Amazing Brain Train is targeting a very specific market; it’s ’edutainment’ for children and might amuse their parents too. Consisting of various puzzle mini-games and costing a reasonable $6/600 Points, it’s a fair deal for its target audience. Core gamers that enjoy the likes of Halo and Resident Evil are obviously going to get nothing out of this whatsoever, but those players also aren’t the intended audience. With this in mind, I have no problem recommending The Amazing Brain Train to families looking for a decent educational game for younger children, but that’s admittedly the only group I can see having much interest in it.