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Best Brain Game Games

These are games that exercise your knowledge, recall and memorisation in different ways. Working with numbers, guessing words, remembering trivia, the joy of these games is that they get your grey matter working.

Recently popularised by the Big Brain Academy and Brain Training games, they not only offer an educational experience but a way to interact with games to solve problems and more the story forward.

Genre Details

Era: 1948 - 2024
Total Games: 531
Total Likes: 7,378

Wordle

Release Date: 20/12/2021

Out Now: Web

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead, Grid and Text

Wordle is a daily puzzle game where you (and anyone else playing that day) try and guess the secret word. You get six guesses that must be real words. Each letter is then coloured to provide clues: green for the right letter in the right place, yellow...

Sticky Terms

Release Date: 01/03/2020

Out Now: Android and iOS

Components: 2D Side-On and Text

Sticky Terms is a puzzle game where you construct words from other languages with portions of letters. You rotate, drag and overlap the different elements to create words, once you do you are rewarded with a drum hit and a definition of the word.

Venba

Release Date: 31/07/2023

Out Now: PC, PS5, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox X|S

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Hand-Made

Venba is a narrative cooking game where you play an Indian mother who emigrated to Canada in the 1980s. You cook various traditional Indian dishes and restore lost recipes which were damaged in the move to Canada. As you cook, you talk to your family...

Conduct Together

Release Date: 06/12/2018

Out Now: Android, Mac, PC, Switch and iOS

Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Cartoon

Conduct Together is a strategy game where you control toy trains along overlapping train tracks. Each train can be started and stopped with a specific button. Other buttons change different points. The aim is to transport people from one station to the...

Outer Wilds

Release Date: 11/12/2018, updated in 2023

Out Now: PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox X|S

Skill Rating: 11+ year-olds

Components: 3D First-Person, Day and Night and Open World

Outer Wilds is an exploration space mystery about a solar system trapped in an endless time loop. After 20 minutes of game time, you must start again – but each time brings a new opportunity to learn how you ended up on the planet and solve the...

Overboard

Release Date: 02/06/2021

Out Now: Android, PC, Switch and iOS

Skill Rating: 13+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On, Hand-Made and Text

Overboard is a murder mystery narrative game played in reverse. You murder your husband at the start of the game and then try and get away with it. It's played on a ship where the characters are affected by your choices and changes their actions...

Ibb and Obb

Release Date: 01/08/2013, updated in 2020

Out Now: Mac, PC, PS3 and Switch

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Cartoon

Ibb and Obb is a puzzle game where you run, jump, land on enemies and solve momentum puzzles. The novelty is that it's a game designed for cooperation. One player controls the green creature, Ibb, and the other controls the pink creature, Obb. The world...

Threes

Release Date: 06/02/2014

Out Now: Amazon Fire, Android, Web and iOS

Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On

Threes is a puzzle game where you slide numbered tiles on a grid. When they collide they combine their numbers, like Triple Town. You can match 1's and 2's with each other, the white tiles can match cards that are multiples of 3...

Tren

Tren (Dreams)

Release Date: 01/08/2023

Out Now: PS4 and PS5

Skill Rating: 6+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Hand-Made

Tren is a traversal-puzzle game set in a hand-crafted world as a wooden train, sailing boats and helicopters. You control points, shunt trucks around, operate cranes and generally move cargo from one location to the next. Like an escape room with toy...

Ghost Trick

Release Date: 19/06/2010, updated in 2023

Out Now: DS, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One and iOS

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Pixels

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is a narrative brain game where you play a ghost that can stop time to solve crimes and save lives. You can inhabit and control objects and possess corpses to alter what happens. His ultimate aim is to use his memories to...

Labyrinth City

Release Date: 22/06/2021, updated in 2021

Out Now: PC, Switch and iOS

Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Cartoon

Labyrinth City: Pierre the Maze Detective is a traversal maze game where you guide Pierre from the bestselling children's books Pierre The Maze Detective to find a route through the city and recover the stolen Maze Stone. Play involves exploring the...

Baba is You

Release Date: 13/03/2019

Out Now: Mac, PC and Switch

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Pixels

Baba is You requires some lateral thinking. Each level is controlled by rules written on the screen, such as ‘Lava is Hot’, ‘Wall is Stop’ and ‘Flag is Move’. By moving the words around with your pixelated character, you subvert the...

Hidden in Plain Sight

Release Date: 16/07/2014, updated in 2020

Out Now: Mac, PC, Switch, Xbox 360 and Xbox One

Components: 2D Overhead and Pixels

Hidden in Plain Sight is a unique battle that requires keen observation rather than quick reflexes. Up to four players fight to protect or assassinate the king, catch a thief or race across the screen without being stopped. The twist is that you each...

Crime O'Clock

Release Date: 30/06/2023

Out Now: Mac, PC and Switch

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead, Cartoon and Hand-Made

Crime O'Clock is a point-and-click crime-solving game where you explore a detailed map to piece together timelines that prove whodunnit. You zoom in and study the detailed map to find time markers and work out the culprit of hacking, murder and theft.

Cris Tales

Release Date: 20/07/2021

Out Now: PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Hand-Made

Cris Tales is a role-playing game where you see how your actions in the present affect the past and future. You play as Crisbell in a cartoon-looking adventure through four Kingdoms in a bid to stop the powerful Time Empress and rewrite the future of...

Henry Halfhead

Release Date: Coming soon

Coming Soon: PC

Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person and Cartoon

Henry Halfhead is a traversal game where you move around by possessing and controlling any object within your reach. You move around the world freely, but to get where you need to go you need to become the objects around you to use their abilities. It...

Blanc

Release Date: 14/02/2023

Out Now: PC and Switch

Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Hand-Made

Blanc is a black-and-white adventure for two players. You play a fawn and a wolf cub stranded in a vast, snowy wilderness. As you use each other's abilities to progress through the world, you form an unlikely partnership and hope to find both their...

MicroMacro: Crime City

Release Date: 01/01/2020, updated in 2021

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: Board and Cards

MicroMacro: Crime City is a puzzle brain game where you are solving crimes by discovering clues hidden in black and white pictures. You solve a series of cases that relate to different large pictures you lay out on the table between all the players. The...

ElecHead

Release Date: 14/10/2021, updated in 2022

Out Now: PC and Switch

Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Pixels

ElecHead is a running and jumping puzzle game where you control a character who is a source of electricity. With this power, you activate the platforms you need to progress in unusual and puzzling ways. It introduces unique scenarios where you need to...

Chants of Sennaar

Release Date: 05/09/2023

Out Now: PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person and Cartoon

Chants of Sennaar is a traversal and translation puzzle where you play a traveller called to reunite the Peoples of the Tower who are unable to communicate with each other. Play involves exploring the cell-shaded world to decipher the glyph-based...

Qwirkle

Release Date: 01/01/2006

Skill Rating: 5+ year-olds

Components: Placeables

Qwirkle is an abstract sequencing puzzle game where you compete to create rows of matching (or series of) colours and shapes. You score more points by matching multiple directions but need to be careful not to leave points for other players to...

Tsuro

Release Date: 01/01/2005

Skill Rating: 6+ year-olds

Components: Board, Figures and Placeables

Tsuro is a strategic tile-laying traversal game where the goal is to keep your piece on the board longer than anyone else. You play by adding intricate winding Path tiles to a board to move pieces along the path that you create. It is a game of cat and...

A Tiny Sticker Tale

Release Date: 04/10/2023

Out Now: Mac, PC and Switch

Skill Rating: 5+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Cartoon

A Tiny Sticker Tale is an adventure where you change the cosy cartoon world with stickers. Play involves moving around and talking to the locals, then switching to sticker mode to use objects and complete quests. It stands out for the approachable play...

Dixit

Release Date: 01/01/2008

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: Board, Cards, Figures and Tokens

Dixit is a communication game where you guess which Picture cards are related to someone's clue. Each round you each pick a card to match the Storyteller player's clue and then try and guess which one was the Storyteller's. It's clever because of the...

Exploding Kittens

Release Date: 01/01/2015

Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds

Components: Cards

Exploding Kittens is a push-your-luck card game like Russian Roulette but with adorable kittens rather than bullets. You take turns drawing cards until you get the Exploding Kitten card and lose. The twist is the various comical and cunning ways you can...

Humanity

Release Date: 16/05/2023

Out Now: PC, PS4 and PS5

Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person, Blocks and Cartoon

Humanity is a puzzle-action game where you are a lone Shiba In dog shepherding a huge marching crowd of people to safety. You place commands to get your flock of humans to jump, turn, push, float, shoot, and climb their way to deal with the "others" and...

Yono and the Celestial Elephants

Release Date: 12/10/2017

Out Now: PC and Switch

Skill Rating: 5+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead, Blocks and Grid

Yono and the Celestial Elephants is an adventure puzzle game about helping a young elephant restore order to the world. You explore the world and help the characters you meet by solving puzzles going on treasure hunts and occasionally taking on some...

Let's Revolution

Release Date: 19/07/2023

Out Now: PC

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead, Board, Cards, Cartoon and Grid

Let's Revolution is a puzzle adventure where you work to stop a narcissistic King from ruining your world. Play is like Mine Sweeper where you get numerical clues on one tile about what's on its neighbours. Here though, you use this information for...

Bananagrams

Release Date: 01/01/2006

Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds

Components: Bag and Tokens

Bananagrams is a brain game where you arrange and rearrange letters to make words. You play by taking Letter tiles from a shared pile and organising them into a crossword grid. It is a game of speed, quick adaptation and that glorious feeling of joy...

Mosa Lina

Release Date: 17/10/2023

Out Now: PC

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Pixels

Mosa Lina is a platform brain game where you are granted three random abilities to complete each self-contained level. You can always walk and jump around the level, but this is aided (and sometimes hindered) by the selected abilities at your disposal...

Teach Your Monster To Read

Release Date: 10/03/2014, updated in 2020

Out Now: Amazon Fire, Android and iOS

Skill Rating: 3+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On

Teach Your Monster to Read is a game about phonics, letters and reading. Children create a monster for a journey through three games. The combination of colourful well-animated characters and proper reading learning is both fun and powerful.

Inscryption

Release Date: 19/10/2021, updated in 2022

Out Now: Mac, PC, PS4, PS5 and Switch

Skill Rating: 14+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead, Cards and Hand-Made

Inscryption starts as a card-based adventure where you build a deck of cards to take on adventures and battles. To this, it adds escape-room style puzzles, both in the card game and in the room in which you are playing. The result is a psychological...

World of Goo

Release Date: 13/10/2008, updated in 2017

Out Now: Android, Mac, PC, Switch, Wii, Wii U and iOS

Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Cartoon

World of Goo is a puzzle game where you use balls of goo to create bridges that span increasingly large chasms and obstacles. The game simulates real-world physics to determine if structures are strong enough and when they collapse. This means that...

A Monster's Expedition

Release Date: 10/09/2020

Out Now: Apple TV, Mac, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch and iOS

Skill Rating: 6+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead, Grid and Hand-Made

A Monster's Expedition is a puzzle game where a monster finds creatures on an island and learns about the history of humanity. The puzzle is how to get from one island to the next.

Braid

Release Date: 06/08/2008

Out Now: Mac, PC, PS3, Xbox 360 and Xbox One

Components: 2D Side-On

Braid is a platform game, not dissimilar to Mario World, that appears simple but has a twist. The movement of your character is connected to the progression of time in a mind-bending manner. The resulting puzzles are fascinating and connected to a story...

Imbroglio

Release Date: 18/05/2016, updated in 2020

Out Now: iOS

Skill Rating: 13+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Grid

Imbroglio is a puzzle game where you take a character into a dungeon and progress by collecting stars. The twist is that combat is focused not only your abilities but the tile you are standing on when you attack. Although each character has different...

Pitfall Planet

Release Date: 02/05/2016, updated in 2019

Out Now: Mac, PC and Switch

Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Blocks

Pitfall Planet is a cooperative puzzle game that forces you to think outside the box as you collect gold, fight enemies and escape levels. It features challenging levels that mean that teamwork is central as you grapple, throw and create pathways...

Corrypt

Release Date: 18/12/2012, updated in 2017

Out Now: Mac, PC and iOS

Skill Rating: 11+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead, Grid and Pixels

Corrypt is a role-playing puzzle game where you collect items and interact with characters in a maze filled with moveable boxes. In a novel twist, you can push and pull the boxes, but they stick to you, making it a challenge to move them out of the way...

Just One

Release Date: 01/01/2018

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: Cards and Pen and Pad

Just One is a communication party game where you guess words based on one-word clues from the group. You work together to help the guesser by writing one-word clues on the wipeable easels. Unusually, if the clues are the same they are removed before the...

Hidden Through Time

Release Date: 12/03/2020, updated in 2022

Out Now: Android, Mac, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One and iOS

Skill Rating: 6+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Hand-Made

Hidden Through Time is a spot the item game that also takes you on a journey through different time periods. You are tasked with finding specific items and must zoom, interact and uncover things to find each one.

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Accessibility features:	Yes

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User-generated content:	No

Controls
Gamepad:
Mouse And Keyboard:
Touchscreen:
Motion:	Motion Aiming Motion Pointing Motion Tilting Motion Gesture Motion Camera
Remap Controls:
Button Combinations:	Holding Down Buttons Optional Rapid Repeated Pressing Optional No Simultaneous Buttons
Controller Vibration:
Sensitivity:

Getting Started
Onboarding Before Play:
Assistance Getting Starting:	Tutorials Practice Area View Control Mapping Assistance With Controls Reaction-Time Not Critical Low Pressure Adjust Speed No Jump Scares
Assistance For Progressing:	Guaranteed Progress With God Mode Bank Progress With Frequent Checkpoints Assisted Progress With Boosts Assisted Progress With Hints Assisted Recall for Characters Assisted Recall for Narrative and Dialogue Save Progress Anytime

Reading
Reading Level:
Text Visibility:	Large Clear Text High Contrast Text
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Audio
	Balance Audio Levels
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Difficulty
Difficulty Options:	Simple and Full Version No Memorisation Advantage No Hidden Information No Deceit Advantage No Colour Advantage No Mathematics Advantage No Weighing Decisions

Getting Started
Assistance Getting Started:	Clear Manual Electronic Version of Manual Electronic Version of Manual for Screen Readers Getting Started Video Digital Version Reference Aid
Assistance Progressing:	Play Order Tokens (Or play order doesn’t change) Reaction-Time Not Critical Low Pressure Low Impact Catch Up Rule

Reading
Reading Level:
Necessary Text Visibility:	Large Clear Text on Board (Or no text required) Large Clear Text on Cards (Or no text required) High Contrast Text (Or no text required) QR Code For Text (Or no text required) Primary and Secondary Text Distinguishable (Or no text required) Information Orientation Clear Icons

Physical
Pieces:	Components are Distinguishable by Touch Components are Replaceable No Non-Standard Dice (Or No Dice) No Tiny Pieces No Paper Money No Sprawl
Cards:	Large Card Size Standard Card Shape Limited Hand Management No Excessive Card Shuffling No Right-Handed Advantage
Placement:	No Unbound Placement Player Components Not Shared No Fiddly Placement Easily Verbalised Actions

Visual
Printed Visibility:	Colour Blind Friendly Design Double-Coding Colour High Contrast Colours
Component Identifiability:	Outline Key Elements No Busy Backgrounds Easily Verbalised Game State No Close Inspection Disadvantage Playable Without Sight

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Include compatible platforms:	Yes

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