Better or worse? YOU DECIDE! (The correct answer is "slightly worse," but I don't want to spoil it.)

Picross DS

I'm going to try something a little different today. It's not that big of a deal, I'm just going to try hosting these charts through Blogger instead of through Imageshack. What does this mean for you? Nothing.

Picross saw some interesting developments today. I made too many mistakes during Nonstop, finishing up in 66.69 seconds. If you turn it upside-down, it's 69.66 seconds, so I could have done worse. You know. If I was playing upside-down.

However, there was a marked improvement in the other games! 30.52 seconds in No X Marks (the lowest it's been in the past 3 days!), 48.01 seconds in Error Search, and 26.35 seconds in Memory--which, if you disregard the anomaly from the first day, is PRETTY GOOD.

This chart is PRETTY GOOD too.

Big Brain Academy

Oh, Big Brain Academy, is there anything you can't measure? What with your five categories of testing and all?

The Think category was well-represented by "Pathfinder," a game that requires you to draw a line. Yes, that's right. You know those old games you used to play in all those books of kids games, the ones for kids, where there was a thing at the top of a thing, and you had to draw another thing to get the thing at the top of the thing to the thing at the bottom of the thing? It's like that.

I liked the game in the Identify category, "Get in Shape," which shows you a silhouette, and then charges you with selecting the correct shapes to form it. It's PRETTY GOOD as well.

Compute and Memorize had games that I've explained before ("Coin-parison" and that one where you memorize stuff). Analyze had "CubeGame" (GET IT, LOL) which is pretty much a game where you count cubes.

All of this Academy-ing raised my brain's weight to a whopping 1143g, which is slightly higher than yesterday's! I again got a C+ grade, but I now have the brain of a museum curator!

More like museum CHARTator, am I right?

Planet Puzzle League

Disappointing today. 2979 points in Score Attack mode, and 2209 points in Lift Attack mode.

At least I got 124 points in Garbage Attack mode this time! That's 124 more than I got yesterday!

The following chart may be too extreme for younger viewers.

Brain Age

I know how you people think. You don't care about those other games! The Brain Age tests are the only reason you keep coming back. DON'T LIE TO ME.

Brain Age 1, Stroop test. I find it easier to get it to recognize "Blue" if you say everything in this low gravelly voice. Well, not like, super gravelly, but a low voice. IT'S ACTUALLY SORT OF SENSITIVE.

I also did Calc x20 and Connect Maze, but you already know what those are!

Brain age of 29. Woo! Getting back to normal!

Brain Age 2 was PRETTY G--um, PRETTY AWESOME today. I set three all-time Brain Age 2 records, which would be pretty impressive if I had been playing more than a week. The games were Rock, Paper, Scissors, Symbol Match, and Serial Subtraction.

Serial Subtraction shows you a number (like, for example, 63) and tells you to subtract another number (like, 7) over and over again (like, 63>56>49>42>35>28>21>14>7, except it usually doesn't pick numbers that can be divided so easy).

I ended up with a rockin' brain age of 28, which brings the Aver-Age up to 28.5! It's looking PRETTY ACCURATE now, right?!

Well, why don't you read the chart?!

Pac-Man

You're going to be sorely disappointed in me today. I made some terrible choices during Pac-Man, resulting in a Pac-Score of Pac-8990 Pac-Points. They kept cornering me! :(

A document of my shame:


Well, it looks like I'm going to have to work harder at brain training, Pac-Wise. I only play it once per day, so every time I play, it's like, Tron, or something, where I'll explode if the disc hits me.

Something like that.

Labels: Nintendo DS, The Daily Grind

Some interesting data today, including ANOTHER GAME. I KNOW, GUYS.

Picross DS

It occurred to me that I should be applying the negative number rule to Picross, since it uses times to measure your score. The chart has thusly been updated, and will look even weirder than I predicted it would yesterday.

Either I'm very tired today, or I was super alert yesterday. I did a good job with the Time Attack, coming in at 34.73 seconds but I ruined everything else. No X Marks took me 74.45 seconds, while the Error Search took 55.12 seconds. The Memory time is probably a more accurate representation today (35.95 seconds), since yesterday's was REALLY EASY. Here's a REALLY EASY CHART.

Big Brain Academy

The Identify category presented me with a game called "Matchmaker," wherein I had to find matches between sets of items. It's sort of easy, until they start using numbers instead of easily definable shapes.

For my Analyze score, I played a game of "Animal Lines." The game displays a grid of animals, and a pattern of them on the top screen. The object is to draw a line through the grid of animals that accurately passes through the animals on the top screen in their correct order.

The Think-related game was called "Bone Yard." A little cartoon dog thing appears in a grid, and the top screen displays arrows noting the path that the dog is going to take upon the grid. The point is to place a bone in the place where he will end up, based on the arrows. There are also large green blocks that can move, so you have to take those into consideration as well. DARN YOU GREEN BLOCKS.

Memorize and Compute were the same. HAH!

My brain weight is now 1139g! Woo! Improvement! I also now have a C+ rating, and the mind of Michelangelo!

Unfortunately, "Michelangelo" is not a number, and is therefore not featured in the following chart:

Planet Puzzle League

It's sort of hard to write a lot about the Planet Puzzle League scores. It's so boring to say, sorry. All I did was get 3170 points in Score Attack, 2419 points in Lift Attack, and 0 points in Garbage Attack.

Wait--WHAT?!

Yes, 0 points. I let the stack get too high. SORRY EVERYONE.

At least the chart should look cool now.

Brain Age

First test...Stroop Test. I finally ended up running into the "Blue" problem. That'll teach me to open my big mouth! My big typey internet mouth!!

Word Memory, which was forged from hate and lava and evil dinosaurs, let me remember only 18 of its 30 random words. Thanks, Word Memory.

My third test was Calculations x20, which I genuinely like to do.

Sadly, I ended up with a brain age of 43.

In Brain Age 2, I got my second-highest time in Rock, Paper, Scissors! TAKE THAT, STROOP TEST.

The second test was called Symbol Match. The game assigns random symbols to numbers, then shows you a number, and then you have to draw the symbol. I don't often draw ampersands, so, naturally, they throw in 9000 ampersands. Thanks guys.

I also did Math Recall again. It's like Total Recall, except less about Mars and more about Math.

My brain got older today, with a brain age of 35. BRAIN, WE HARDLY KNEW YE.

I'm introducing a new thing to the Brain Age chart, the "Average Age" (or "Aver-Age" as I am so wittily calling it) of my brain. Logically, since both games are a true measurement of the age of my brain, because of SCIENCE, I can get an even more, super-accurate estimate of my brain's decline into senility via this new item.

(FYI: Yesterday, the Aver-Age was 29.5, while today it is 39.)

THE NEW FANCY CHART PLEASE!

So, you may ask, "how does this stuff actually affect you in real life?" To which I will respond, "I don't know, but I can do an inane test to pretend to find out!" And, thus, another game is added to the fray, a game that I am impossibly terrible at...

Pac-Man

Yes, that's right. I'm bad at Pac-Man.

But, super Brain Training should have a positive effect on my Pac-Man scores, right? Isn't this how science works?!

I don't know.

But I have gotten better since yesterday! My score yesterday was 12520 points, and today it is 13280 points. ASTOUNDING!

Wild CHART appeared!

Some hits and misses today. My brain is getting older and heavier, and I'm getting worse at drawing stuff in boxes. At least I know how to run around and eat pills.

Like Pac-Man.

It was a Pac-Man joke.

Labels: Nintendo DS, The Daily Grind

I was looking through my DS collection the other day, when I realized exactly how many games wanted you to play them every day. I mean, yes, of course developers want you to love their games and play them all the time, but these games actually promote daily play as a feature. And we all know who to blame for that! (I'm looking at YOU, Brain Age!)

Anyway, I figured this would be a good enough experiment for the site. It's not really an "experiment" because I'm not really trying to figure out anything. I guess you could call it a "research project." Or a "case study." Or a "waste of time."

For the next 1 or 2 weeks, I'll be providing daily updates (I hope) chronicling my progress through 5 DS games: Planet Puzzle League, Picross DS, Big Brain Academy, Brain Age 2, and our old buddy Brain Age 1.

Much in the spirit of the Brain Age Chronicles, this new project will have fancy charts (this time, courtesy of Apple's Numbers trial).

So, what are we waiting for? Let's begin!

Picross DS

Picross measures its progress in times, so I'll be using seconds in the charts. I've only got four of the five modes unlocked right now (although I'm sure that will change.)

If you're unfamiliar with Picross, Google it, because it's hard to explain.

The first mode is Nonstop Time Attack, which presents you with 5 different 7x7 Picross grids that you have to solve in as little time as possible. Today it took me 52.89 seconds, which is actually my second highest time! GO ME.

The next mode is No X Marks, which is exactly the same as Nonstop Time Attack, except you can't place X marks anywhere on the grid. X Marks in the game help you determine where NOT to place blocks, so it's a little more challenging. I made a few mistakes, which adds additional time, so I ended up with a time of 64.02 seconds. Ugh.

Error Search is an interesting mode. It displays 5 nearly-completed puzzle, with some blocks in the wrong places, or missing altogether. IT'S UP TO ME TO PUT THOSE BLOCKS IN THEIR PLACE! (sorry.) I completely rocked this today, coming in at 38.26 seconds! Zoinks! Jinkies! RARI'M ROVER RHERE! (Scooby Doo references.)

Memory displays a single 7x7 grid for 30 seconds, and requires that you memorize the numbers outside the box to properly fill in the correct squares. (I bet you wish you'd clicked that Google link now!) Today's was frighteningly easy, and it only took 2.92 seconds to complete. THE CHART IS GOING TO LOOK WEIRD FROM NOW ON.

Please wait while we process the Picross DS chart. I'm just kidding. Here it is.

I know, it's not exciting. Also, the size of the charts will vary, because of (REASONS GO HERE.) Onward!

Big Brain Academy

Like everyone else that bought Big Brain Academy for the DS, I have not played it in months. I'm sure everyone else moved on to Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree, but I didn't! No sir, not me!

Anyway, Big Brain Academy uses the "brain weight" scale to determine how...uh...large and pulsating your brain is. Gross. They also give you letter grades, but those are pretty much determined by the weight of your brain, so I'm not going to bother putting them on the chart.

Big Brain Academy tests your brain in five categories: Think, Memorize, Analyze, Compute, and Identify. After using some special super magic mathematical algorithms, it tells you how much your brain weighs. I'M NOT SURE HOW ACCURATE IT IS. BUT NINTENDO MADE IT SO I'M PRETTY SURE IT'S A FAIRLY GOOD ASSESSMENT OF HOW MUCH YOUR BRAIN ACTUALLY WEIGHS BECAUSE IF YOU KNOW MORE STUFF THEN IT WILL MAKE YOUR BRAIN HEAVIER, BECAUSE IT'S SCIENCE AND THAT'S HOW SCIENCE WORKS. Not really.

First up is Identify. In this particular minigame, I have to touch images that match the shadows provided.

Think follows, with a minigame called "Heavyweight," that shows me a bunch of scales with stuff on them and asks me to figure out which item is the heaviest.

The Compute category challenges me with "Coin-parison," which is a little game that shows me two sets of coins, and asks which one adds up to more money. DARN YOU, MATH.

The Analyze game, "Missing Link," shows me a completed "connect-the-dots" puzzle on the top screen, and the same puzzle on the touch screen, which is missing several connected dots. The game highlights (on the top screen) a specific line it wants you to fill in, but the game also flips around the image on the top screen so that it is hard to find. DARN YOU, LINES.

Finally, we come to Memorize. The "Memo-random" game wants me to memorize images and touch the answer. This isn't like the Brain Age memory games, because this is fast-paced. TRUST ME, GUYS.

I ended up with a Brain Weight of 946g. The little man in the game says it's "pretty impressive." I also have the brain of a conductor, and a grade of...C. Somebody programmed this game to humiliate me.

HERE'S YOUR CHART.

Planet Puzzle League

Planet Puzzle League doesn't bother itself with fancy brain measurements. Rather, the game is ALL ABOUT YOUR SCORES. In fact, the game practically ATTACKS you with game modes. As in, the game modes are called "Score Attack," "Line Attack," and "Garbage Attack." They're pretty easy to explain: Score Attack measures your score, Lift Attack measures how many lines you are able to make the puzzle rise (or LIFT, hotshot), and Garbage Attack measures how many Garbage Blocks you're able to clear. Oh, you're also given 2 minutes each.

I'm going to do these all on HARD MODE just for the sake of science. Also, since they all use numbers as their scores, they all go on the same chart. HAH!

I got 3301 points in Score Mode, 2709 points in Lift Attack, and 137 points in Garbage Attack (BECAUSE IT COUNTS POINTS DIFFERENTLY.) WITHOUT FURTHER ADO HERE IS THE CHART. I told you, Planet Puzzle League doesn't like to mess around!

Brain Age

I'm combining the two Brain Age games into one category, because, let's face it, they are the same game, with different tests. I'm going to do things proper, and do them IN ORDER. I'm going to try to do the voice-recognition games whenever I can, because those are a true test of BRAIN POWER!

Brain Age 1, first test, STROOP TEST. LET'S YELL OUT SOME COLORS. I only messed up twice! How come everyone else has problems saying "Blue"?

Next up is my least favorite thing ever, Word Memory. 21 out of 30 words! Tied my best score!

Connect Maze is a welcome relief from those games, which are arguably the two hardest things to do in Brain Age. My #2 score in this. Woo?

Anyway, I ended up with a Brain Age 1 brain age of 28. Oh well.

Ah, Brain Age 2. The new kid on the block. The new boy in the backstreet. The new sync that is just N.

First up is the warped version of Rock, Paper, Scissors that forces you to shout out "ROCK," "PAPER," or "SCISSORS." The game shows you a hand forming one of the three, and an instruction to "please win" or "please lose." THIS GAME IS HARDER THAN YOU THINK, BUDDY.

Math Recall asks you to perform basic math questions, while also remembering the number that it draws over. Yes, that's right, you actually have to remember stuff. WHY?! This game is easier if you say every single problem out loud like a maniac.

My third and final test is High Number, which requires that I choose the highest number out of a series of randomly scattered numbers. It's pretty fun.

Anyway, Brain Age 2 gave me a brain age of 31. LET'S PUT IT UP ON THE CHART!

Since, in the world of Brain Age, a lower score is a higher score, I'm using negative numbers. JUST SO YA KNOW.

That wraps up today's edition of The Daily Grind. Don't expect all of them to be this long, because this took FOREVER to write.

Labels: Brain Age Chronicles, Nintendo DS, The Daily Grind

They've had it for a week, now. Can't I just play Marathon Durandal in peace?!

Labels: Adventures in Tech Support, Meta, Xbox 360