GOTW #5: Brain Games vs Brain Evolution

You heard it right, this week I’m pitting two of the better phone  software companies out there (in my opinion anyways) on each of their own “Brain Games”. 

First a look at SPB Brain Evolution.  Starting off, you’ll think “who is the golden man?” maybe a trophy from the old Bond movie Goldfinger but no, he is just jolting your brain so that you are ready for all the goodness that is to follow!  The game comes with 10 games, which (like games like Brain Age for the DS) you have to play the lower level games to unlock the higher level games.  The games are: Arithmetics, Quadronica, Memorics, Sudoku, Numbers, Minesweeper, Balltracker, Guess Who, Encyclopedia and Matches.  I’ll get into more detail for each game later in the review.  I do like this style of game play, but at the same time I don’t.  I’m too impatient to wait for all of the games to be unlocked.  I also forget to play sometimes and feel that i missed out on something.  The games that I have unlocked (Arithmetics to Minesweeper) are all very good and the more you progress the more difficult they are so they don’t just stay on the easy level forever.  There are user profiles, so you can let whoever you want play and they wont screw up your game and there is also a  “Interesting Facts” section; which is … interesting.  You can also set your “brain mark” which for me is currently at “Student.” 

Now lets see Resco Brain Games.  The first thing you’ll think about this is “Wow, iPhone-ish  interface” and then you’ll remember that the iPhone is just a glorified app launcher and WinMo phones will always rule.  :)  Game selection here is amazing! there are 44 games to choose from and they are divided up into 4 categories; Calculation, Memory, Analysis, and Attention.  So less of the more “popular” games like in Brain Evolution, but more games that seem to really work your brain.  And if you’re reading this I’m sure your brain needs some work!  The games are a load of fun and aren’t as easy as you may think.  They get progressively harder as you move on per level of game.  Oh i forgot to mention, most games have at most 10 levels (at least 6) so that makes about 400 different games that you’ll run into.  For example, on “Calculation” level 1 is simple adding and subtracting where level 5 is multiplication and division.  You can also choose a profile for this game, but the options are pre-defined for you as “Default”, “Green” and “Red”.  And for statistics you get charts for overall progress, daily and per category which is nice to see.

Read on to get my recommendations and see who wins the fight.

For simplicity, I’ll use “SPB” and “Resco” for their respective brain suites.

Round 1: Games

SPB offers a great selection of games.  Minesweeper is an old favorite of mine and its nice to see it in there.  And the increased difficulty for the games is great, but it seems that if I suck at one type of game, i can get stuck whereas with Resco i can play all the games atleast on the easy level and go from there.  BUT Resco’s games are mostly “mathy” (which i dont think is a word) and arent as fun. 

WINNER: DRAW

Round 2: Interface

Rescos’ interface is very fast and VERY smooth where SPBs’ can be a little sluggish at times and kind of hard to use because it is not as finger friendly.  I think it is this way because it was originally designed for QVGA and not the greatness that is VGA.  I do have to give the edge to SPB because their interface DOES NOT look like the iPhone.

WINNER: SPB

Round 3: Performance

Both games run well with limited hiccups in gameplay, but I have noticed more “lag” I think in SPB than I have seen in Resco.  The interface also plays into the picture here since it is so smooth.  So the edge goes to Resco.

WINNER: Resco

Round 4: Features

Now I’m not talking about in-game features, what I’m talking about is their compatibility.  SPB supports 240×240, 240×320, 480×640 resolutions where Resco supports 240×320, 480×640, 480×800, 240×400 and square 320×320.  Also Resco was updated February 3rd 2009 where SPB was last updated January 2008.  That may not mean much, but as of these current versions, it means Resco gets the nod.

WINNER: Resco

Round 5: Price

Both games cost $19.95 and for what you get from each, its worth it.  For SPB, Minesweeper can be found in places for $5.95 And almost the same for Soduko.  So if you throw in the other games, I’m sure you’re saving money.  Not to mention that SPB sells Minesweeper itself for $9.95!  Resco is totally original, and having 44 different games makes it a no-brainer that its worth the money.  Its hard to find individual games that obviously have ALOT of work put into them that are that good.

WINNER: Draw

OVERALL WINNER: Resco!!!!

So the overall winner IS Resco!  But at the same time, they are both GREAT games and worth at least a look! I’m not going to bore you with ALOT of pictures that I could throw on here, but follow the links below to the video reviews and respective sites to download the games.  Both SPB and Resco offer a money back gurantee so if you’re not happy, you should be able get your money back no problem.

SPB Brain Evolution

Resco Brain Games