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Brain Buster Puzzle Pak Hands-On

Agetec stops by the GameSpot office with a near-finished version of its upcoming puzzle compilation for the Nintendo DS.

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Currently scheduled for release in North America in February, Brain Buster Puzzle Pak is surely one of the most appropriately named games ever to grace a release schedule. Developed in association with Japanese puzzle book company Nikoli, this compilation boasts hundreds of brain-busting (we checked) puzzles in five different flavors, including Sudoku, Light Up, Slitherlink, Kakuro, and Nurikabe. We got our first look at the game earlier this week during a meeting with Agetec, and we'd almost certainly still be trying to figure out one of its fiendish puzzles right now if we'd been left with a copy.

If you recognize any of the included puzzles it'll almost certainly be this one.
If you recognize any of the included puzzles it'll almost certainly be this one.

All five of the puzzle types included in Brain Buster Puzzle Pak employ grids with numbers on them, and all require the same kind of logical thinking to solve. If you're familiar with any of the puzzles already, it's almost certainly Sudoku, which has become something of a phenomenon in recent years but which was originally conceived in 1979. The name Sudoku was given to the puzzle by Nikoli, who first published it as "Suuji wa dokushin ni kagiru" in 1984 and then improved upon the original formula very successfully in 1986. In keeping with Nikoli's philosophy on puzzles, all of the Sudoku grids in the game (with the exception of those in training mode) are hand made rather than computer generated. The difference, purportedly, is that the lovingly crafted puzzles from Nikoli are challenging but never stressful, because the designers always take the solvers' feelings into account.

Unlike their pen-and-paper equivalents, the puzzles in Brain Buster Puzzle Pak benefit from a number of helpful though strictly optional hint systems, and it doesn't hurt that no eraser is necessary when you make mistakes, either. The majority of these hint mechanics are similar to those that have appeared in similar puzzle games previously, such as being able to highlight all instances of a particular number or be prevented from entering numbers in squares where they're illegal. All of the puzzles can be played exclusively using the touch screen and stylus, and if you take too long solving a particular problem, you'll notice small items and characters appearing on and quite quickly moving across the touch screen. Hitting three of these with your stylus will unlock a hint, although doing so will adversely affect your rating. Scores and speed aren't normally an issue where puzzles like these are concerned, but since Brain Buster Puzzle Pak can track and compare the performances of four different players on a single cartridge, there's certainly some incentive to outperform your friends.

The fact that you don't need an eraser is a huge plus when playing Slitherlink.
The fact that you don't need an eraser is a huge plus when playing Slitherlink.

While its puzzles are certainly challenging, Brain Buster Puzzle Pak is uncomplicated and accessible. Colorful, illustrated menus make it easy for you to choose which game you want to play, and the brief tutorials and earlier puzzles do a great job of easing you into the game proper. A "special color therapy mode" with "bonus fortune-telling features" will also be included, though we didn't get to see them in action on this occasion and will admit to being somewhat bemused (and maybe a little intrigued) by it. We look forward to bringing you more information on Brain Buster Puzzle Pak as soon as it becomes available. In the meantime, you might be interested to check out Nikoli's official Web site, which features explanations of all of the aforementioned puzzle types.

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