Keep those lightbulb moments happening with these brainy games.
Whether you’re struggling with putting names to faces, find splitting the bill a little trickier, or are simply interested in making sure that your brain is working as efficiently as possible, there’s never a bad time to start some brain training games. We’ve collected a mixture of games from different genres that will take up different amounts of your time. There are some that are suited to gaming enthusiasts, who will often have a whole hour to devote to the task, and others that will be more suited to the casual gamer, who might only want to play for five minutes per day. Whichever category you fit into, we’re pretty confident that we’ll have something which, firstly, you’ll enjoy and, secondly, your brain will thank you for playing
Wordle
Wordle is the latest trend in word games
First up is a game that’s been the talk of, well, the whole world lately. Wordle was invented by a loving boyfriend for his girlfriend who’d gotten bored of the daily crossword puzzle. He devised a method for how the game would work and then asked his girlfriend to rank five letter words in terms of familiarity as he read them from a dictionary. He took the words which she was entirely familiar with and mostly familiar with and used them as the answers for the game. It wasn’t long before the New York Times got wind of this simple but brilliant word game and bought it off him for a reported $1 million. Now, it’s possible to play Wordle on the New York Times website, with a new puzzle available daily. Simply guess a five-letter word and every letter that is correct will turn green; each letter that is correct but in the wrong space will turn amber; and incorrect guesses will be greyed out. You’ve got six guesses to work out the word correctly and you can share your results to social media too. The game refreshes once a day at midnight, so is perfect for the casual gamer who has just five minutes to devote to gaming. This is a great choice for those wanting to improve their vocabulary and understanding of the formation of simple English words.
Minecraft
Next up is a game that will be most suited to devoted gamers, those who have an hour or so to devote to gaming fairly regularly. It’s also highly likely that you’ll have heard of this game before, as it is one of the most popular in the world. Minecraft is an open-world game that allows you to create whatever you can dream up. You can find building materials in the world around you and naturally occurring areas in the game that lend themselves to certain projects. With these tools and ideas you are encouraged to let your imagination run wild. There are options for playing with friends and even opening up your map to other players around the world. You can allow hoards of monsters to attack your projects, or play without for a more peaceful experience. Minecraft is a game that very much molds to the person that’s playing it. Better still, it’s what’s known as a cross platform title, meaning that you can take your game from the computer to the PlayStation without losing any of your progress. This game is a good choice for those who want to expand their imagination and creativity with some prompts to help along the way.
Chess
Finally, this game is the undisputed champion of ‘nerdy’ games: chess. Its geeky reputation comes from the fact that it is a seriously difficult game to master. The rules are deceptively simple and learning the ways in which the pieces can move is pretty straightforward too. However, because chess has been around for such a long time (hundreds and hundreds of years), there’s been plenty of time for people to work on the strategy of the game. You can do a deep dive into YouTube for information on chess strategy or visit your local library, but getting stuck in and playing is often the best way to work things out at first. You can play online or on a physical board, and the rewards in your logic skills will be marked!
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