Well, on the upside, it's not another entirely outright Brain Training derivative. However, that considered, it's still clear that Left Brain Right Brain 2 very much owes its existence to Nintendo's best selling series, even if it's your hands that it's more interested in.

It's basically a mix of the aforementioned Brain Training with a dash of WarioWare added in, the idea being that you work your way through the collection of 20 minigames to help make yourself ambidextrous.

The template - and you're not telling us there isn't a construction kit for this kind of thing out there somewhere - is rigidly followed, as you undergo initial testing before working out whether you're a lefty or a righty. We're talking about your hands, just to be clear.

Your reviewer is right-handed, and in this case the game instructs you first and foremost to swivel the DS round to complete a trio of initial, pretty tedious exercises. Then it's a straight 180-degree turn for the console, as you repeat the exercise again with your left hand. The swivelling of the machine is a neat idea and one that gives the title some distinction. And once you're done with the exercises, you get your score.

From there, you can tackle the numerous exercises in the game, and over time your hand and eye coordination is supposed to improve. We doubt that it does, to be fair, but putting all of these minigames against the clock does nonetheless inject something just a little different into the formula.

Naturally, once you've worked out the mechanics of the minigame in question - and that's not going to take you long - your performance improves irrespective of whether you're left or right-handed. Furthermore, so basic are the exercise themselves - ripping up pillows, rolling balls into pockets, catching balls, rolling boulders, placing stamps on envelopes, that sort of thing - that it's hard to conceive there's any challenge or self-improvement in here whatsoever.

So we're left wondering if it's in any way entertaining. And really it's not too bad, at least in the short term, and is clearly enhanced by its wise inclusion of multiplayer options. It's attractively presented, the games do you little or no harm and it's pretty much what you'd expect when you first pick the box up.

This reviewer never had the pleasure of Left Brain Right Brain 1, so can't gauge whether there's been much in the way of improvement here. So what we're left with is a title that's not the miracle cure to those with a dodgy left hand or something like that, but a way to while away ten minutes or so here and there. That it does. But it does not a jot else, and it's in arguably the most swamped sector of the market where the DS is concerned.

Verdict
A passable casual game, but one that, as far as we could tell, offers no real way to realise its laudable aims.

Company: Majesco

Tags: brain fitness lateralization of brain function nintendo nintendo ds physical exercise brain working memory people