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Brain training games are a dime a dozen on Nintendo’s platforms. With the prospect of getting smarter while playing games so attractive to so many players The Amazing Brain Train tries to make the experience of learning a little more fun than the reality most of these puzzle games bring.

If the visual style (chock full of cartoon animals and the cutesy Professor Fizzwizzle) isn’t a good indication, The Amazing Brain Train is designed for kids. There isn’t a whole lot of detail in the animated characters and things feel pretty generic, but for an unlicensed learning game it’s about as interesting as it can get without distracting kids from actually playing. Moment to moment the images look fine, but with the Wii’s low-resolution the blown-up 2D critters seem a bit blurry and lose their sharp lines in the haze.

If you can look past the juvenile interface what you get is a rather interesting take on the brain training phenomena. Unlike most lobe-teasers, The Amazing Brain Train actually features a quest mode that tracks progress like a traditional video game campaign. Players are put in charge of the train and decide which animals to visit in order to complete tasks. Along the way they get stopped by timed brain teasers that are completed within a few minutes before continuing along the path. All of the puzzles scale in difficulty; the more right answers you give within the time limit, the harder each question gets which means that even bright adults can find a challenge.

Where most games offer a list of trials, The Amazing Brain Train takes that control away from the player and something interesting happens. It becomes very easy to forget just how many challenges you’ve completed and the simplicity of hitting puzzle after puzzle means that players, and easily bored kids, will play for longer. It’s a great method of keeping things moving in an otherwise static genre.

Having good, fun puzzles doesn’t hurt the flow either. There are the standard math and perception tests, but also some more interesting ones that require a touch more manual dexterity. This can be frustrating for those who want a 100% accurate representation of their intelligence as fumbling fingers can cause lower grades, but in reality those people should be relying on something other than video games for validation.

The Amazing Brain Train does suffer from some conflicting design choices. While the game is geared to children there are far too many long-winded pop-ups and clicking ‘Okay’ a whole bunch will throw any tantrum-prone kid in to a fit of rage. There’s no voice overs explaining what to do, a necessity when dealing with the illiterate. Unless there’s an adult present to explain what’s going on important info is likely to go right over the target audience’s head.

Getting in to the mind of a child is hard, developing a game for a 6 year-old version of yourself is not an easy task. The Amazing Brain Train feels like it started with the intent to be a really fun and fast-paced brain training game but instead got caught up in adult sensibilities and forgot who it was for. It’s a fine game for adults who like getting sucked in to their brain teasers and can overlook kiddie visuals, but unless your child is extremely patient or well read the interface may feel a little confusing and frustrating for them.

The Amazing Brain Train was released on January 18th 2010 for Nintendo Wii via WiiWare