Georgia Institute of Technology and North Carolina State University have teamed up via a $1.2 million grant to research the benefits of video game playing. The initiative aims to determine whether playing video games can boost the person’s thinking skills and memory. Their first task is to identify the qualities that make a good game for the brains and build a game from scratch.

According to Dr. Anne McLaughlin, assistant professor of psychology at North Carolina State,  the fundamental brain strengthening qualities are attentional demand, novelty, and social interaction. With these things in mind, the best game suited for the job is EA’s Boom Blox games.

The Boom Blox game is a Steven Spielberg and EA game, with Steven on board, a product that exercises the brain is no surprise.

Image from Boom Blox games.

News from Yahoo video.

Post from: EveryJoe

The Best Game for the Brain

image: EA.com

I was originally interested in it because it won for “Best Wii Game” (although, it is also available on Mobile and N-Gage 2.0) at the 2008 Spike Video Game Awards which basically proves that Steven Spielberg is not only great at making movies, he’s also skilled at making video games.  It’s so popular that a sequel named Boom Blox Bash Party is already slated for a May 2009 release.

Boom Blox tests gamers ability to strategize and solve puzzles.  It reminds me of a hybrid between Jenga and Tetris, mixed with something else.  You will be taken through training and then you will be able to play the game in several different ways.  Adventure and Explore Modes consist of more that 300 levels where a single-player will be able to unlock and advance to different levels based on their performance.  Depending on how well they do, players will either fail or will get a bronze, silver or gold medal.  They will only need a bronze medal to advance to the next level.

In Party Mode, players will be able to engage in either single, cooperative or competitive game play (up to four people).   Create Mode allows players to create or modify multiplayer or single-player levels.

The only drawback I’ve found is that, on the Wii, the movements required are very repetitive (even more so than many of the other Wii games) so if you have any sort of wrist or arm problems, you might feel a bit uncomfortable after a while.  I can only play in spurts but I do enjoy it.  Here’s a quick trailer:

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Video Game Review: Boom Blox

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X-Play Boom Blox Review