thinkSmart Nintendo DS Game Review & Giveaway

I had been hoping to get my boys some actual learning games for their new Nintendo DSs’ and thankfully thinkSmart came along just in time!

· Kids thinkSMART 8+UP for Nintendo DS (8+ UP): A fun and fast paced collection of stimulating and brain twisting puzzlers that challenge players to improve their brain power.

o Kids can select a boy or girl coach that will guide them through the different levels providing personalized feedback on their progress.

o Single player and Multiplayer Modes including are available to give kids the chance to match with friends and family members to figure out who has the highest “think quotient”!

o Three levels of difficulty and 6 categories of games including language skills, logical thinking, math, memory, reasoning and pattern recognition.

· thinkSMART for Nintendo DS: Think outside the box and improve your mental fitness! This original brain training program challenges older players thinking skills in an imaginative and creative ways.

o Three levels of difficulty and 6 different training categories including language, memory, mathematics, spatial reasoning, grasp and logic.

o Single card or Multiplayer Modes of play to determine which one of your friends has the highest Think Quotient.

My boys dove right in to their thinkSmart games. I explained to them that these were “learning” games to see what kind of reaction I’d get, but it didn’t seem to phase them.

Both boys messed up right away by not following the instructions. To begin with you have to write in your name. Well, what they missed in the directions was that all the letters were supposed to be Capitalized. It was a great teaching moment, to make sure they read all the directions before they started a task.

A couple days after the boys had the games, the neighbor girl called asking if Doodle could bring over the thinkSmart DS game. How awesome is that?

I finally decided I should try it out to give it my own opinion for this review. It was pretty easy to navigate, although I did need help from my boys.

I went through the different activities and thought they were good learning tools. The only issue I had was when you had to fill in a word to a “saying”. A couple of them weren’t grammatically correct and didn’t make sense. This is something I can easily help my boys with if they don’t understand it.

Other than that, I found the activities to be challenging and good learning tools for my boys. If they’re going to be playing on their DS, I figure it’s nice to have a tool they can learn with as well!

The thinkSmart games are also available for the Wii!

Now it’s your turn to win a game for your family.

Required: Tell me what Nintendo DS game you child likes the most. If you don’t have a DS, tell me which one you think they’d like.

Giveaway open to US Residents 18 yrs or older. Please leave your email in the required entry or have it available in your profile. No email/contact = No entry. Giveaway ends 10/3 midnight PDT. Winner has 48 hours to respond.

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I’d like to thank the Bender Hammerling Group and Pitch It To Me for the opportunity to review both games. The opinion expressed is my own.