Customer Reviews

ULTIMATE BRAIN GAMES

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I thought I might be able to add a little information here. This game pack is great and as others have mentioned, 2 people can play any game either on the same game boy or with 2 GBAs linked together with a link cable. We had a little trouble getting 2 GBAs linked up but for some reason reversing the cable did the trick (plugging one end into the other gameboy).

When the description says "Demo mode" it means that you watch the game play itself. The onscreen help is just rules - there aren't any strategy hints included with the exception of a simple tutor mode in Chess where it will give you simple hints. The background music is annoying - I wish it would remember when you turn it off.

Chess is well done (switch the board to "standard view"). I am not a execellent chess player so I can't comment on the chess playing ability of the game. You are able to take back moves if you get yourself into trouble. Chess additionally includes 100 "puzzles" for you to solve like finding checkmate in 2 moves or whatever. The chess game is not on a clock (which I prefer).

I have played most games of Reversi. I have beat the computer 2 out of about 100 times but I am hopeful I am getting better. The backgammon seems to be pretty easy to beat and there is no doubling cube. We played a couple of linked games of "Sink the Ship". This is like battleship except every round you get 1 shot per ship that isn't sunk. So at the beginning you pick 5 shots to do.

The Mahjong is probably fun but the tiles are too small and too dim to really see. The Dominos game is regular dominos where you score if the dominos on the end add up to 5, 10, 15, 20, etc... Haven't played checkers or 4-in-a-row.

To summarize this is a great time waster and well worth the money. It could kill large chunks of time on a car trip.

I have been playing this game for about 24 hours, off and on, and can easily see why IGN.com and others are rating it so high. It is really a well designed compilation of entertaining games with loads of features and cool elements. I've even learned how to play chess thanks to the in-game instructions and help. But the most fun is the "Sink-the-ships" game, which is really Battleship but with sailing ships. The sound effects are realistic and the graphics are great. I really enjoy tanking my brother's ships when we play head to head.

The best thing about this title is the variety of stuff you can play here, and the level of game play. Most of the games offered here have several levels of difficulty and the challenge is good for both kids and adults. The games are fun and varied enough to keep players busy for quite a while.

One cute feature is the face creator, that allows you to make an avatar of yourself, making the game personalized!

The Chess game is challenging, and really would be enough to recommend this title on its own. But add in backgammon, dominoes (which isn't that difficult to figure out once you play it a time or two), mah jong, 4 in a row, which is the board game "Connect 4" and sink ships, a cute version of "Battleship," and you have an excellent title, great for long excursions.

Highly recommended!

...until now! This game is just awsome! The Face Creator feature is especially cool and also the linkability to other GBA's - only one cartridge is needed. I urge you to get a copy of this game and take it along with your GBA - anywhere. Saving at any point makes it easy to resume a game wherever and whenever you want! GET IT!

This game is the best it has some of my favorite games. You can pick your oppents level of dificulity! The cool thing about Sink the Ships (Battle Ship) is you shoot more than once at a time so the game goes quicker. The chess gets a little boring because you have to move fromm square to square. Dominoes I love on their it has a level of oppent that I am! Resveri is to hard the only level that I can do is very easy and i am very good at it. Four in a Row is my favorite it has the same rules Connect Four and they make the easiest and hardest levels wihich is good for me because I share it with my brother and he is not very good but I am thats what I like about it. I don't know how to play Backgammon and Mah Jog and the game doesn't give a good discreaption of how to play. Finally, the person desinger rocks I made it to look just like me you can put on just about every little detail you need. It is my favorit e game I ever got!!!

It's about time that someone thought of doing this for the Gameboy Advance. There's some of us out here that enjoy playing games of this nature and I tip my hat to Telegames for having the courage to release a collection of this type. For instance, there's Chess, Checkers, Backgammon, Mahjong, Dominoes, 4-in-a-Row, Sink the Ships, and Reversi so there's plenty of variety to choose in what to play as well as the Face Creator feature which permits player customization. You can select full 3-D or 2-D views with animation, board types, figure styles and backgrounds. You can pick your computer opponent from a list of 12 different male and female faces with animated expressions, Edit the playlist(from the over 1-hour game music playlist) to only hear what you want and more. Heck, you can even play against a real opponent with one game pak and a link cable to his or her GBA. I really think Telegames did an excellent job with this game. Giving us a good quality collection of games with lots of variety.
If you're into classic strategy games of this sort, you ought to give Ultimate Brain Games a try. It's awesome.

This is by far the best collection of board and brain games I have ever bought. Chess alone is surely the most complex and strongest version compared to all other mobile chess games but you get 7 other nice games in the package. Especially Mahjongg graphics are great and the visuals her and in all other games appear very sharp. The face creator-faces even get animated!
Really impressive an fun -- you can't get wrong with this one!

Although graphics are limited on a GBA the game does reasonably well. "Sink Ships" has some difficulty in creating graphics so that a sunk ship can be distinguished. Otherwise it's "OK".

My biggest gripe is with the chess game. I'm not the best or the worst chess player but even if I "dumb-down" the chess game it ALWAYS wins. It also can castle, but provides no instructions or any intuitive way for the player to castle. It would be better if it would allow the player to win occaisionally. This makes the chess game very frustrating and not fun after a few dozen games of chess.

Same thing goes for checkers, it makes multiple jumps but doesn't provide a way for the player to do the same.

I've played the Mah Jong game a few times, and it always ends up the same... with tiles left and none match.

The reversi game is a bit better and is winable. I haven't tried the dominos game yet and the others only once so far.

Overall it's a bargain considering the quantity of different games it provides but it lacks the "fun" factor by making games impossible to win.

Many times as I've worked in the video game industry, I've had adults come to me, and ask for a game like this, so they could buy a GBA. Prior to this game coming out last year, the only truly adult themed game for people who aren't hardcore gamers was Caesar's Palace. This is a great game, not only for the variety of games it contains, but the quality and attention to detail. It's not as simple as say a black and white handheld dot matrix checkers game or something like that. This game actually challenges you to think, and is perfect to take along for those times where you have to wait or travel. The beauty of this game is that you can pick it up at any time, and also by that respect, you can easily put it down. With the invent of the GBA SP, I saw many professionals come in and buy a GBA SP with this game for their commute, or what not, as it is simpler and less expensive then a comparable Palm system. If this is your goal, then this is the game for you.

I ENJOY THIS GAME. I LOVE THE FACT THAT I DONT HAVE TO FIND THE GAME AND THEN MAKE SURE I HAVE ALL THE PIECES THEN SET IT UP. I HAVE A VISION IMPAIRMENT AND COULDNT PLAY MAJIONG UNTILL I FOUND THE KIDS TILES NOW A PLAY ALL I WANT. I LEARNED BAGGAMMON AND REVERSI.