I've always been told that I have "book smarts," but when it comes to the streets, I'm as dumb as they come. And you know what…I'm an idiot. Of course, maybe I could get over my stupidity if I knew how to train my brain like a muscle. Along comes Hot Brain for the PSP, a game that seeks to warm your brain up and improve your mental abilities. After testing my brain a few times, apparently I'm still only smart in terms of books, and still fail utterly in social situations yet again. So with continued playing, will Hot Brain have me as hot as MC Hammer or cold as Vanilla Ice?

SINGLE-PLAYER: GAMEPLAY
The bulk of the game is meant to stimulate your brain and help improve your mental performance; given that it's no surprise that the majority of the game is centered around the single player experience, and perhaps rightfully so.

The meat of the game is the test mode, which tests how warm your brain is and therefore how much you are using it and how much you're working it out. As the game explains, by partaking in challenges such as those in Hot Brain, you'll be able to raise the core temperature of your brain, which is cold during rest but shows warmth during practical and puzzle thinking. By training your brain with Hot Brain, theoretically you'll be able to memorize, concentrate, and have improved communication skills. Have a warm brain and it could also lead to enhanced creativity and a higher intelligence.

In order to test your brain and work all its proper quadrants and regions, Hot Brain tests you in the realms of Math, Logic, Language, Memory, and Concentration. The game provides three different tests for each learning realm and the game picks these at random for any given day. The games are as follows:

Logic: Sequencer (shown a sequence of items and need to find the next logical step in the sequence), Shape Logic (you are given shapes and need to find the proper outcome of combining the shapes), and Back Seat Driver (need to follow the arrows and figure out where a taxi will stop).

Memory: Scene of the Crime (shown a picture and then need to pick the object from a lineup), Musical Memory (remember the pattern in which items make noise), Pinball Wizard (see which button gets hit by the pinball the most).

Math: High and Low (put items in order from lowest to high or high to low), Cruise Ship (watch people enter and exit a cruise ship and tell the game how many are left on the boat at the end), and Equation Sensation (determine the missing sign to complete the mathematical equations).

Language: Alphabet (put words in alphabetical order), Spelling Bee (identify misspelled or words spelled correctly), and Picto-Rhymes (view a picture and find the word that rhymes with the picture).

Concentration: Untangle (tangles of yarn need to be undone), Shape Up (find out which shape can be created with the pieces given), Combine (view a piece of a shape and then find the piece that will complete it).

The game chooses at random the different tests, though some feel like you experience them more often than others. The brain tests start with easy questions as they define them, and the longer you last and more you answer, the harder and harder the questions get. Once the time is up for a brain test, it will give you results and then move you along to the next test until after you've played five different tests – one test from each brain realm. After you've completed all the tests, the game will then calculate your scores and show how cold or hot your brain is and breaking it down so you can see where you need more work. The game will also keep track of your brain by using a graph, showing you the rise and fall of your score each day you use it with a line graph.

Admittedly the science behind Hot Brain makes sense, but is there any way to actually test that? The challenges seem to repeat and using the same objects almost each time, so don't you just remember the answers after a while? If I used it for a week straight, shouldn't my score either stay the same or keep going up, not fluctuate all that much? As a scientific game it seems solid, but as a game not so much. I've had fun with the game and find it interesting testing my brain out each day just to see the results, but beyond those handful of moments spent testing my brain, I can't see who would use the practice mode to play the games over and over.

MULTIPLAYER: GAMEPLAY
Besides being a single-player game to test your brain, you can also work cooperatively with a friend or compete against them in solving different tests. Having two to four players do the modes is great, but really the game works best as a single-player brain tester.

GRAPHICS
The graphics are simple, but they get the job done. The animated professor is probably the best looking thing about the game, which is probably more because of the voice actor behind it and the character he manages to infuse into the professor.

AUDIO
The sound effects used for some challenges sound good, but there isn't too much noise other than a chime or buzzer depending on if you got an answer right or wrong. The most audio work comes from the professor who leads you through your tests, who is voiced by the hilarious Fred Willard.

IN CONCLUSION
As a game Hot Brain works well for what it is – a game you pickup once a day to test your brain for a few minutes and then never touch again until the next day to test your brain again. If you are looking for a game like that which could in theory improve your brain, then Hot Brain is for you. If you're looking for a game you can delve into and play for hours on end, then Hot Brain is definitely not the game for you.

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