The Encleverment Experiment is an outstanding achievement if only for it’s high ranking amongst the world’s most terrible names for games. Oh and the names for the mini games are pretty high up there too; “Shelf Awareness”, need I say more?

So right off the bat, it’s another one of those so called educational games. Encleverment Experiment boasts 16 minigames promising to exercise your brain and increase your brainpower. But already I feel stupid for playing it!

There’s a number of modes such as Take a Test which measures your improvement over time, as well as the Game Show which pits you against computer AI. But they all boil down to pretty much the same use of minigames. Here they all are so you know what you’re getting yourself into:

Oddest One Out – spot the odd one out
Copy Cat – memory sequence (this is pretty tough or my memory’s failing me)
Pie-eyed – take away this much pie and how much is left?
Griddled – a basic wordfind puzzle
Shelf Awareness – an eyespy type game
Partial Recall – remember the items
Teleporter Troubles – memorise faces
Stepping Tones – memorise sounds & colours (this one is tough!)
Welcome to the Jumble – find the word amongst those jumbled letters
Lab-o-rinth – find the correct path through the maze
Herd Today, Gone Tomorrow – reaction game based on pure reflexes
Mathletics – sums (and just when you thought you had long left maths back at college)
Bore-a Findy – follow the directions; north, south, paces, that sort of thing
Semi-Vinyls – a basic jigsaw puzzle disguised as a broken record
One Small Step – what’s the next step in the sequence?
Cognitive Therapy – find the right shaped cog

The developer even managed to fit them all into four categories or ‘four quadrants of the brain’ which is something I’m pretty sure they’ve just made up: Pattern Recognition, Memory, Mathematics and Reactions. At least it’s not trying to measure the weight or age of your brain like some games I know!

Instead they make a big fuss about mascots and making sure you choose one before you play – but they don’t really do anything! They do a little dance when you get an answer right but that’s about it. There’s also a Mascot Shop to unlock more of the cute and ultimately crappy critters with some sort of currency you earn. The game supports Avatars to a very limited degree, camera support for online play and the big selling point… compatibility with the ‘big button pads’ that come with Scene It?.

The downside to supporting the big button pads is that it’s not interactive enough. Sure it makes it more accessible to those people scared of controllers but quite frankly it’s just not fun. Big Brain Academy on the DS and Wii had the right idea by having you point and click at stuff. A little interactivity goes a long way.

To make matters worse the cliché of a genius (you know, the short figure with balding white hair, a white bushy moustache and spectacles) will pop in from time to time with the most banal and unfunny quotes known to man. Oh and the voice actor sounds like a bad impression of a pompous old git. Talk about annoying, sheesh.

The worst part about this game is the presentation, as it’s actually pretty good. The menus are slick and clean and the minigames are well set out. Even the instructions are pretty clear letting you know exactly what you have to do. So it’s a real shame to find out that the actual content is so poor. There are only 16 puzzles which would be alright if they had a bit of depth to them but they are extremely shallow and don’t offer much variation. Sure it may give you a buzz after a few close calls with friends but after a few rounds all that buzz will soon fizz out and all that’s left is some pretty graphics.

Something that completely befuzzled me was the sound effect used when you enter your answer. Sure it makes sense in multiplayer to keep it neutral but when you’re playing single player and you answer, the round immediately stops and you get instant feedback. The sound effect when doing so is so close to a failing sound I often thought I’d done something wrong, not to mention the controller vibrating and profile box shaking onscreen. A simple sad horn for a wrong answer and a happy ding for a right answer would have made a world of a difference.

Oh and another thing – dear me this doesn’t have too much going for it at the moment does it? It’s either extremely well hidden or entirely nonexistent but I couldn’t find a way to adjust the difficulty level in multiplayer play. If you had kids you wanted to play with or wanted a more challenging match, the only setting available appears to be the normal difficulty. Absurd I hear you cry? Absolutely!

Closing Comments

With such a great array of games available on Xbox Live Arcade, it’s hard to justify spending your cash on duds. Even if you’re into these sorts of brain training minigames, I think you’d be better off looking elsewhere. Encleverment Experiment is something I’d expect to find as a free flash game and even some of the puzzles are more suited to something you’d find in the back of your newspaper.

Released on 11/11/09 for 800 MS Points.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 at 11:15 pm and is filed under Games, Reviews, Xbox 360. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.