Puzzle games. It seems like there are more and more puzzle games out these days, especially on handhelds like the PSP and the DS. And as they gain popularity, puzzle games become more and more sophisticated, with ever 
more innovative gameplay. But sometimes, you just want something familiar, and simple. The Challenge ME series from Oxygen Games definitely delivers that. Oh, man does it deliver that. This time around, we got to review two games, Challenge: Math Workout and Challenge ME: Brain Puzzles from Oxygen Games.
I’ll start this review chronologically, with Math Workout. The Math Workout has two types games, both of which supports up to three additional players wirelessly with one cartridge. The first game, called Hidden Logic, is a card game where you try to guess the numeric values of cards. There are two game modes within this game, vs Hidden Logic and Guess Hidden Logic. In vs Hidden Logic, you have to guess the numerical values of the other players’ cards. In Guess Hidden Logic, you have to guess the numerical values of the cards in front of you. There are several rules which help you “logically deduce” what cards your opponent has. I put logically deduce in quotation marks because a lot of the time, it really does feel like you are guessing, leaving login aside. Furthermore, in vs Hidden Logic, your oponent is the AI, and man is it relentless. They probably h
ave about a 90% chance of guessing the right answer. After several initial play-throughs, I felt like I was a kid again, complaining that the computer was cheating. But then again, winning over the AI does give a pretty sweet sense of accomplishment.
The second game type is called Formulate, and like the previous one, there are two game modes: Free Play and Challenge Me. The basic gameplay is the same for both gmae modes, where you randomly draw cards with a numeric value attached to a plus, minus, multiply, or divide. Using these cards, you take turns against your opponent rearranging them to make correct mathematical euations. Again, like Hidden Logic, the problem is that it seems like most of your work is based on guessing and luck, due to the random drawing of cards.
The biggest problem I had with all of these game modes is the fact that there aren’t any clear instructions on how to play the games. Based on the vague guidelines provided, I had to kind of feel my way through the game. After tripping over and hitting my shins a few times, I finally figured it out. On the plus side, there are plenty of puzzles to keep you busy. And that’s about it. The graphics and sound are pretty flat and generic. Nothing really to talk about in this department. Though its pretty cool that 4 people can play wirelessly with one cartridge, it doesn’t seem that spectacular due to the fact that the game in its entirety feels like a minigame.
The second game, Brain Puzzles, like the Math Workout, is a simple game with two modes: Sudoku and Picture Logic. First of all, this gam
e had the same problem the previous game: there aren’t any clear in-game instructions on how to play, especially for the picture logic! But putting that aside, those who’ve played Sudoku before will feel right at home. The rules are identical. Once you use the stylus to select a square, a number pad appears, allowing you to select a number to place in the square. A cool little feature in this game is the ablility to put possible answers in the four corners of individual boxes, allowing you to sort of take notes as you work your way through the puzzles.
Picture logic is another logic game where you have to use the numbers and colors displayed above and to the side of the box to create a picture. The numbers 
show how many tiles in that row or column are colored in. By combining the two sets of numbers, you can use logic to deduce which tiles are colored in. Seems simple enough, but once you get into it, it can be quite challenging, and sometimes frustrating.
The title provides two ways to enjoy these games: Puzzle and Instant Fun. As the name suggests, in Instant Fun, you can play both Sudoku and Picture Logic as single puzzles. There are two game modes under the Puzzle mode; Challenge Me and Fee Play Mode. In Challenge Me, the game tracks of your progress such as time and number of puzzles solved, which then is used to give you a ranking. In Fee Play Mode, you can select a puzzle out of the 500 that the game provides, and the top 3 times are saved.
Like Math Workout, the presentation of this game is very simple, and seems more like a minigame than an actual title. However, this game does provide a solid “Logic” experience. Those looking for just a simple Sudoku/Picture Logic game will be pleased. In fact, I didn’t really know how to play sudoku before this, but I actually enjoyed it very much, and was kind of addicted.
So, in conclusion, I say this: Math Workout can be fun for the first few challenges, and you can definitely achieve a great sense of accomplishment (thought it’s probably not based on skill) defeating the AI. But it also has a lot of room for improvement. I definitely recommend those who want a solid sudoku game to check out Brain Puzzles. Its clean, simple logical fun.
