HOW TO
5 smart ways totrain your brain
What did you have for dinner last night? Um… If you can’t quite remember, these clever apps and games will sharpen your weary brain right up.
WordBrain 2
The first edition of this excellent word search game has been played by millions of people, and this sequel is quickly becoming just as popular. The master of App Store word games MAG Interactive has created hundreds of new puzzles to get stuck into here, which are categorised under an extensive range of fun themes.
Geist
Daily brain workouts, backed up by actual science, are the main draw in Geist. Play these fun minigames every day and you can set (and reach) personalised targets, building up a full picture of what your Brain Quotient might be. From there, you can see where you sit compared to other Geist users.
Threes!
It’s testament to this game’s enduring appeal that we’re still playing Threes several years after it first hit the App Store. Our 2014 iPhone game of the year is a wonderful puzzler which asks you to slide numbered cards into each other to rack up a high score. Absolutely essential stuff.
Lumosity
A team of scientists and designers put together the dozens of different brain games and activities in Lumosity, which challenge five core cognitive skills: speed, memory, attention, flexibility and problem solving. Daily workouts are based on your preferences, and you can poke through analysis of your results if you want to understand your strengths and weaknesses.
Typeshift
Leading indie creator Zach Gage delights in reworking classic games such as solitaire and chess for a modern audience, and he’s done the same for the humble word search here. In TypeShift you’re given a sliding selection of letters and asked to form as many different words as possible. A smart test of your vocabulary and ability to think creatively.