Brain Age is a really big thing. You know that, I know that. Naturally, there are many, many imitators who have sprung up to grab a bit of the spotlight. Most of them fail miserably. Agetec’s Brain Buster Puzzle Pak might seem like a shameless attempt to cash in on the brain-games fad, but it is actually a surprisingly addictive puzzle title.

We’ll get this part out of the way first. Brain Buster borrows liberally from the Brain Age formula. It even has its own professor to help you along your way. However, Brain Buster is actually a completely different type of game. It’s a collection of popular Japanese puzzle games – Sudoku, Kakuro, Slitherlink, Light Up, and Nurikabe – from the minds at Nikoli. You are probably already familiar with Sudoku. You’re given a 9×9 grid which you fill with digits with no repeats. Kakuro is a similar game, but you have to insert in digits so that they add up to the number on the end of the row or column. In Slitherlink, you draw lines so that you form a loop. The field is filled with numbers which represent the number of sides that are filled in around that number. If you have a three, three of its sides are part of the loop. Light Up works on a similar principle. You want light bulbs to illuminate each tile. Numbers tell you how many bulbs to place. Lights aren’t allowed to overlap. In Nurikabe, you form “islands” around each number and turn the rest into a “sea.”

You start off with fifty puzzles from each game, but more can be unlocked. While it would be nice to have more puzzles, this will still keep you busy for awhile. You’ll also unlock pieces for jigsaw puzzle that can be completed at the “world map.” By tapping little floating objects as they pass by, you can earn hints. You might not need many; the puzzles don’t actually get that hard. This is a fantastic game for puzzle fans, but it won’t do anything for pros. Slitherlink provided the hardest challenge for me, while I breezed through the Sudoku and Light Up puzzles.

Everything is controlled with the stylus, and it usually works very well. Sadly, you can’t type in the actual numbers. That remains exclusive to Brain Age. You instead select numbers from a grid. The interface is what will remind players that this is a budget title. It all feels a little generic. The artwork is grainy and the color schemes are a bit jarring. This isn’t a big deal, since the game plays well, but the game’s appearance feels a little cheap.

It won’t really provide much for detractors, but Brain Buster Puzzle Pak is a good buy for people interested in number puzzles. The sheer variety of puzzles makes this title soar over its competition, and it won’t break the bank at twenty bucks. This is one “brain-game” that is actually worth picking up.

Score – 7/10