What are the best brain training games? The fact that question has me scratching my noggin doesn’t bode well, but I’m not one to back away from a challenge, so I’m ready to dive into every brain training game I can get my hands on for Nintendo Switch and mobile. Some might make me feel so intelligent that I think I’m Albert Einstein, while others leave me with a blank expression and a sizzling brain.
Before we go any further, we have some other guides for you to check out. If it’s not the challenge of brain teasers but the hardship of a perilous adventure, our Castlevania games, Mega Man games, and Tomb Raider games articles have some great suggestions. Or, if the idea of anything difficult in any shape or form is a big no-no for you, go and chill with our list of the best games like Stardew Valley.
Here are the best brain training games on Switch and mobile:
Wordle – mobile
Let’s start with a simple one that every single one of you likely knows about at this point. Wordle took the internet by storm following its release in 2021, and it continues to fascinate players to this day, offering a daily brain teaser that either makes you feel like a genius or like you need to return to school.
The premise is incredibly simple. Every day, there’s a new word and you have to guess what it is. Simple, right? Well, it’s not as easy as it sounds, there are a lot of words out there – have you ever held a dictionary? You get just six guesses to get it right, and the only indicator that you’re on the right track is the color of the tiles housing the letters. If the tile is yellow, it means that the letter appears in the word but not in that place, if the letter is green, it’s both correct and in the right position, and should the tile be grey, that letter is completely wrong.
Big Brain Academy: Brain vs Brain – Switch
This is a blast from the past. The first Big Brain Academy title was a DS game from 2005, the second was released on the Nintendo Wii in 2007, and the third, Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain, came out on Nintendo Switch in 2021.
As the name indicates, Big Brain Academy is all about training that vital organ and it does this through a series of games, each designed to test your intellect and skill. One such minigame involves memorizing a series of numbers, while another gives you an animal picture that’s out of focus and you need to identify as quickly as possible.
If you’re smart and you know it, maybe the multiplayer aspects of Big Brain Academy will intrigue you. You can challenge your friends to a series of games locally and whoever gets the highest score wins. You can also head online and compete against other players from all over the world. You can even see where you rank in your country.
Make sure you check out our Big Brain Academy: Brain vs Brain review to learn more about it.
Sudoku – mobile
There are plenty of Sudoku apps on mobile, and they all offer a pretty similar experience, so I’m bundling them all under one banner. Everyone and their grandma knows what Sudoku is. In fact, your grandma might be the one who told you about it.
Like any good brain training exercise, Sudoku is actually a very simple game, but it does have varying levels of difficulty, which most apps allow you to choose from. Starting on the lowest is a good idea if you’re new to it. You start with a 9×9 grid, and each box in that grid needs a number from one to nine, but to make it more difficult, you can’t have the same number twice in a 3×3 grid, nor can it appear more than once horizontally or vertically across the entire grid.
The difficulty factor comes in the form of the numbers the game fills in for you at the start. The easier puzzles have more squares filled in and make it a bit obvious as to which numbers need to go where, while the harder difficulties have fewer numbers resulting in fewer hints as to what number you need to use.
Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training for Nintendo Switch – Switch
You’re more likely to recognize Brain Training than Big Brain Academy due to the fact that many DS consoles came with the game as part of a bundle. Well, it just so happens that there’s also one on Nintendo Switch, and it offers all of the same brain-training goodness you’d expect to see.
There are two different game modes on offer: quick play and daily training, with most of the minigames requiring the console to be in handheld mode. You get access to all sorts of training games, though some are locked, and the only way to access them is to complete your daily training a certain number of times – that certainly helps to keep things fresh.
As with the original game, you can even get a brain age check by completing three standard puzzles. Honestly, I never paid too much attention to this, as one day I’d be 90 and the next I’d be 21 (I wish that was true). Like with Big Brain Academy, you can head online to see how your intelligence fairs against the competition.
Solitaire – mobile
Just like Sudoku, there’s an abundance of Solitaire apps out there for you to enjoy. It’s an incredibly simple game, yet it’s also good for brain training, forcing you to use your noggin as you attempt to arrange the cards in a systematic order. Typically, this involves matching suits or going in an ascending order with the cards. Most of the time, it’s the two combined.
With most mobile apps, you need to try and move the cards into their suits by sorting them into descending order (king to ace). Then, once you have the ace of a suit available, you can finally start removing the cards (this has to be done in order, ace to king). If you get stuck, a lot of Solitaire apps give you a hint, some even move a card for you.
Simple but fun. That’s the best way to describe solitaire and as it’s a quick game, you can play it anywhere, any time.
51 Worldwide Games – Switch
I probably don’t need to explain what 51 Worldwide Games is so much as to offer a few examples of which games are part of the collection. While the Switch title offers fishing, golf, and bowling, those aren’t the reason it’s one of the best brain training games.
Instead, it’s the inclusion of games like chess, checkers, renegade, backgammon, and darts. Yes, darts. Believe it or not, depending on how you play the game, it can offer some good training for your brain due to the math involved. Then, of course, there’s chess, one of the most strategic games out there. Not only do you need to think about your moves, but you also need to anticipate what your opponent might do.
The best thing about 51 Worldwide Games is that once the brain fog starts to set in, you can switch off with the other games on offer.
So, what do you think? Ready to put your intelligence to the test with our list of the best brain training games on Switch and mobile? If you’d prefer to lose yourself in the world of sports, our football games, baseball games, and wrestling games guide might be more your speed.