Brain Chain, the latest trivia guessing game from developer James Porter, has hit the App Store, and it is looking as though the game could take mobile devices by storm. If you aren’t familiar with James Porter as a developer, he is the mastermind behind some of our past favorite hit puzzle and trivia guessing games, such as What’s the Movie?, Hollow Words, Fixum, and Blokheads. This time around, just as original ideas within the trivia guessing genre seemed to be drying up, it seems as though Porter has done it again.
Brain Chain is a breath of fresh air for the puzzle and trivia guessing game genres on mobile. The game’s level layout is nothing particularly innovative in the genre (players pick a set of puzzles, are presented with an image and a letter bank, and must guess the correct title for whatever image they have been given); however, stylistically, the game has a clean, tailored look to it. Levels are entirely free of the screen clutter that many similar games manage include. Buttons are large, clear, and easy to press, and the images are just the right size; not so big that sacrifices must be made elsewhere, but large enough so that they are still comprehensible. Aesthetic appeal was not an aspect overlooked.
So the game looks good, but how does it play? Gameplay-wise, Brain Chain is your typical trivia guessing game. Levels are divided into sets, or categories, and levels become increasingly difficult as you play through each set. However, Brain Chain does bring something original to the table, and that is the aspect of rhyming. Most trivia guessing games require you to guess the answer for each level based strictly on an image; and usually, this image could have a variety of answers that could all be valid, but of course, you need to pick the correct one. In Brain Chain, the image that you are presented with has two different aspects to it that might not make any sense visually, but their names rhyme. The rhyming words almost act as a built-in hint with each level, and narrow down the amount of possible answers. With fun answers like croc sock, wizard lizard, and whale scale, there is no way to predict what Brain Chain will throw at you next!
Of course, don’t assume that this makes Brain Chain easy, because the levels become difficult quite quickly. And like other games in the genre, Brain Chain provides players with a solid hint system that functions on coins, the in-game currency. As players guess answers correctly, they are rewarded with a certain number of coins. If a level is too difficult, players can then spend these coins on a different types of hints to help them out: one reveals the first letter of one of the words, one removes a few letters from your word bank to slim down your potential answers, one supplies players with additional information about the image they need to guess, and the “solve puzzle” hint solves the puzzle completely, though, this costs quite a few coins. If players don’t have enough coins from solving puzzles, there is the option to buy more, for real world currency, from the in-game store. If buying coins isn’t your thing, you can always head over to Brain Chain Answers for solutions to every level! Brain Chain is available for Android and all iOS devices, including iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, and is free to download for a limited time.