Reviews Contents:
1. Horsez
2. Nintendogs
3. Cooking Mama
4. Big Brain Academy


Horsez Review

Pros: These horses and foals are cute and lovable, I say taking care of them  is very fun the first time you play it. The graphics are ok, not blinding to the eyes, but compared to Nintendogs pretty lame. Overall, pretty good graphics. Pretty much you start out as a new student at a horse school. Your name is Ginger and you are asked ot care for a horse.

Nintendogs Review

Cooking Mama

Gameplay: Well, this game is very interactive, and uses the DS stylus quite productively. I found fast fun by chopping, boiling, and preparing international dishes. The recipes range from simple sandwiches to fancy gourmet meals. The meals are very realistic looking if you ask me, and its fun to prepare them to perfection. After you complete an action, such as chopping an onion, Mama gives you a medal. Theres gold, silver, bronze, and if its absolutely atrocious, her eyes will catch fire. Theres also an overall score you receive after the entire dish is done. The goal? I guess to unlock all the dishes and get a gold medal on all. Once youve done that, I dont really know what to tell you.

There is a mode when you can combine dishes to create entirely original recipes. There is also a mode to use your cooking mama skills to try and beat all the levels of mastering a skill, such as peeling potatoes. Watch out, the skill becomes more challenging every level! If youre quick and skilled enough, youll beat all the levels and can try to master another skill.

Pros: Good graphics, charming use of stylus, realistic dishes, fun to make meals, wide variety of recipes.

Cons: Poor use of mic, stylus hard to move quickly around at times, makes you hungry, nothing to do after youve perfected every dish.

Report Card:

Gameplay: Not much gameplay, but its organized well and Mama is funny the way her eyes erupt in flames. Dishes are mouth-watering meals that leave you heading towards the fridge when youre done, maybe even cooking up some yummy treat. Sometimes repetitive and frustrating at times unfortunately. 6/10

Music/Sound: Music is charming and sweet, and ties into cooking well.
8.5/10

Graphics: Not blinding, yet Ive seen better. Never the less, theyre still pretty good. I highly enjoy the game's 3D approach. 
7.5/10

Overall Score: This virtual cooking game deserves an 7.5/10.

Big Brain Academy

Gameplay: Aah, another brain training system now I dont have Brain Age, so I wont be able to compare these two mind puzzlers, but Ill tell you all that I know.

               
Big Brain is a very fun, interesting game. Theres this blob professor guy whos IQ, so he says, is like two billion. Okay, once youve created a file, there are three modes: Practice, Test, and Versus. The first thing you have to do is take the test. Now, since youve just started the game, dont be surprised if you get a very low score. It will increase once you get the hand of these mini games.

Practice Mode is what youll usually be doing. There are five different categories:  Memorize Compute, Analyze, Think, and Identify. Three games are provided under each. The games always relate to their category. In the Memorize category, there is a game called Sound Bites, where there are a few sound sources and you here the sounds in a certain order. You then must play back the sounds in the correct order to get the question right. For all the games, there is a time limit of one minute, and after youve completed the game, you get to see how many questions you got right and wrong. It will let you correct your wrong answers if you wish to do so.

Also, before a game, you can choose what level you'd like: Easy, Medium, and Hard. This is veru useful because if you're older, you'd challenge yourself with hard, but if you're younger, you'd start easy since hard is too difficult. It aims for about ages 10-15 I assume, maybe 16. Personally, I find this game fun and useful. My brain always feels, well, energized. Very cool.

The Test Mode is what you do after you feel like youre prepared enough to take it. However, the mini games for each category are chosen at random, so you better be skilled in all. After you complete the test, blobby smart dude will tell you which category youre strongest in and which category you should work on. Then hell announce your score. They are marked as a letter grade and an occupation, such as B -: a theatre producer.

Versus Mode is simply connecting with up to eight ( I think) friends and their DS to compete, whether they have the game or not. However, you must all be in the same room or the signal fails. Never the less, its fun to compete against each other.

Pros: Fun way to practice learning skills, actually does train your brain, creative and charming mini games that leave you going for the gold.

Cons: Very repetitive (gets boring easily), sometimes frustrating.

Report Card:

Gameplay: There is no gameplay really. Just a bunch of fun little mini games to work on until you get the highest record you possibly can on each. Amusing, intriguing, enchanting they did a good job. As mentioned before, repetitiveness is a shame.

7/10

Music/Sounds: kooky tunes spice up your thinking and are very cool to listen to. They really thread along with the whole brain training idea.

8.5/10

Graphics: Im not very good in this area. To me theyre fine, but dont buy it expecting bright, cheery colors like Nintendogs or something. The colors arent gloomy; they just are what suit this game. Cool blues and smooth grays are what really fit, dont you think? Wait, what do colors have to do with graphics?

7/10

Overall Score: Well done, 7.5/10