Introduction: The Nintendo DS system has scored a huge success with the introduction of the "Brain Game" series of games such as " Big Brain Academy" and "Brain Age". It only makes sense that companies would try to capitalize on the overwhelming success of these titles since they appealed to a very broad audience. So along comes Majesco with their own flavor of mind enhancing game, Brain Boost. I was given the opportunity to try out the Gamma Wave version of the game which is the sister title to "Beta Wave" already reviewed on this site. Gamma Wave is meant to enhance memory function by quizzing the player using numbers, pictures, and shapes that appear in a specific sequence, that you are responsible for storing in short term memory. Is Brain Boost: Gamma Wave the next big thing in the Nintendo's impressive lineup of entertaining educational games for all ages? Or is it simply a poor clone looking to reap the rewards of the success seen by previous titles?

Gameplay: To begin with the completely useless and unnecessary story in Gamma Wave seems like a total afterthought, artificially put into the game so that you could call it a "Game". The gist of the story line is this, you have a robot in a research lab and it's memory has been replaced by a cracker so you must travel to another planet to get it back. Seem lame enough? Trust me it is.

Where the games presented in other recent brain games have been engaging and addicting, Gamma Wave seems to have taken the opposite approach; making them boring to the point that you never want to play them again. Lets take the number sequence game for example. In order for you to actually play to advance the storyline you must first pass a practice round to prove your worth. You are presented with a sequence of numbers such as "673", you get to stare at the numbers for a few seconds and are then presented with a list of multiple choice answers one of them being the correct response. Every few questions, the length of the sequence will grow by one number till you've answered twenty questions at which point you are graded by level of memory development. Believe my by the time you've done this twenty times you aren't really too excited about being graded on your accuracy.  In fact chances are you're thinking of the million other things you could be doing instead of playing this game.  I guess in a sense the game works because I would have never remembered I needed to sweep between the cracks in my sidewalk or buff my kitchen floor had I not played Gamma Wave.

Not only do you have to pass a practice mode for each gametype, there are varying difficulty levels to the practice modes. And until you've satisfactorily completed them all you don't get to progress in the real game. Of course you don't only solve number sequences in Gamma Wave. You also remember colored dot sequences and picture sequences, which are resolved in the exact same fashion as the number game. This game is seriously lacking any fun factor whatsoever, and this is coming from a guy who absolutely loved Brain Age. 

Graphics: What can you really say about the graphics in Gamma Wave? Visually the game looks just fine. The problem is that it all looks like a text book you had when you where in the 1st grade. There is a picture of a little rocket ship and a few multicolored dots followed by a table of multiple choice questions. There is no animation to be found and if there were I must apologize because I was probably sleeping through them.

Audio: Or should I say "Audio?" Was there any? I don't remember hearing any music, but somehow I remember my locker combination from high school, obviously this game Is worth every penny. Seriously the audio neither took away or added anything to the gameplay experience and is absolutely forgettable.

Conclusion: Unless you're someone who is an absolute die hard fan of educational games and you've played everything else out there, I cannot recommend Gamma Wave to anyone. If you haven't played any brain games then there are a few that are much more worthy of your time. I'm sure there are benefits to playing Gamma Wave over an extended period of time the problem is it's just not fun to play. Skip it.