The Amazing Brain Train

Fresh from Grubby Games, creator of all things Professor Fizzwizzle, comes a new brain teaser/puzzle title with a huge dose of cute. The Amazing Brain Train features a heaping handful of brain games woven together with a series of quests given to you by furry animals in distress. In order to traverse the board game-style overworld, you need to unlock sections of track and power your train with—what else—brain power! It's a well-made puzzle experience that puts the "fun" back into "brain teaser" (trust me, it's there).

The Amazing Brain Train features three modes of play: Quest, Test, and Practice. Test and Practice let you jump right in and play the brain teasers whenever you want with no goal other than besting your previous score. You can even play with time limits turned off for a less-frantic experience. In order to unlock all the games, however, you'll need to head over to Quest Mode, the heart of the game where you take and complete quests and power the train by completing puzzles.

There are five categories of brain teasers, each containing three games: number, memory, spatial, planning, and search puzzles. Most of what you see you've probably seen before, either as simple online diversions or mini-games in another casual title, but the signature Professor Fizzwizzle style puts a slightly new spin on them all.

Quest Mode dishes out the teasers whenever your train runs out of juice. When you speak with one of the animals beside the tracks you'll get a quest. Click "Travel" to start moving towards the destination, and when you need fuel you'll jump into a mini-game. The game types appear to be random, and if you get one you're not in the mood for, you can cancel out and re-enter to start a different one. Completing the task earns you fuel that allows the train to chug along to its destination.

Analysis: Visually gorgeous, the Professor Fizzwizzle style is certainly slathered on this game without reserve. The animations are fluid, fun to watch, and I simply can't get over how cool those animals look on the blocks to the right. The high scores and trophy achievements, while not integral to the game, add a nice little touch to the overall experience.

The puzzle variety in The Amazing Brain Train is good, but there aren't very many new ideas here, mostly classic brain teasers. Each is well crafted, easy to play and fun to master, but by the time you travel across the board half a dozen times, you'll be ready for something new. Or just a break from the game.

A superb casual brain teaser game that's perfect for short bursts of play. You can't go wrong with Professor Fizzwizzle, no matter what strange feats he undertakes!

Windows:
Download the demo
Order the full version

Mac OS X:
Download the demo
Order the full version

Linux:
Download the demo
Order the full version