Train Your Brain: Top free educational games for your mobile in 2011

The market for computer-based educational games has exploded over the last few years with the launch of consoles such as the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP in 2004/2005. People were spending hours building up their ‘brain age’ and improving their mental arithmetic skills on interactive learning games, but if you wanted to give your mind an educational workout on the commute to work or during your lunch hour, it meant taking the not-quite-pocket-sized device with you on your travels. Apple came to the rescue in 2007 with the launch of the iPhone, a smartphone where users could download educational games as applications. And the subsequent rollouts of ever more advanced smartphones means that educational games are now readily available on something most people carry with them at all times.

In recent years the apps market has gone from strength to strength, and there are an increasing number of interactive educational games available on mobile phones, encompassing a range of different learning styles. There are brain training games which usually come in the form of puzzles or IQ-type tests, and will frequently test your cognitive ability against a timer. For people who like to wake themselves up on a long commute by improving their general knowledge, there are several quiz games available which will test you on subjects ranging from flags of the world to the periodic table and everything in-between. Developers have also been busy creating mobile versions of online educational games and online learning tools, such as language learning apps for people who want to do their training on the go.

Educational games on smartphones will not always be teaching the user something new (although there are many apps available to help you improve your spelling, mental arithmetic and memory skills), and they will not necessarily be relevant to a person’s job, but what they can do is help to keep your brain active and your mind alert during those parts of the day when you’re having some downtime, as the best games will always keep you thinking.

While it is probably true to say that the majority of educational games for mobile phones are aimed at children, there are still a fair few out on the market which have been designed with teenagers and adults in mind. Here are our top 10…

Smart Educational Games

This app from Crazysoft contains a pack of four games designed for both adults and kids, with different difficulty settings for each. There is a geography game which covers countries and capital cities from across the world, a memory game, a puzzle game to help improve mental awareness and a shooting game which improves your calculating speed. A trial version of the game can be downloaded for free, but in order to fully benefit from the app, further content needs to be purchased. This is also one of those rare apps which is available across all mobile platforms.

Available on the Android, iPhone, Windows Mobile, Blackberry and Symbian OS platforms.

Miss Spell’s CLASS

This is fun and basic spelling game from dictionary.com that tests whether you know if commonly misspelled words have indeed been misspelled. Gamers have the option of just playing against themselves by beating their previous scores, or they can be a part of the global scoreboard. After each game you get a school grade from A to D, based on the number of correct answers you get and the time it takes you to complete the round.

Available on the Android, iPhone and iPad platforms.

Periodic Table

Ever find that science lessons went right over your head at school? Well this could be the app that expands your knowledge of the periodic table, helps you get to grip with the elements, and may also come in handy for pub quizzes. Most of the content on this app is focused on learning, as it has over 30 facts on each element of the periodic table and includes audio clips to help with pronunciation. Users are then able to test themselves in quiz mode.

Available on the Android platform.

Brain Trainer

This app was developed by Lumosity, a company that has spent years working with leading neuroscientists from top universities. It consists of 10 brain games that have been designed to enhance the user’s cognitive abilities, such as better problem solving skills, improved memory and the ability to think more quickly. Brain Trainer has been developed for Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch, although there are variations from Lumosity that have been designed for the Android and WebOS platforms.

Available on the iPhone and iPod Touch platforms.

Against The Clock

This is a range of 12 trivia-based game apps exclusively available on the iPhone App Store. The app covers subjects as diverse as English Proverbs, US Presidents, Named Symphonies and World Snooker Champions, and all of them test users by asking 10 randomly selected questions with multiple choice answers, which need to be completed ‘against the clock’. Not only will this game help to give your brain a workout, it will also improve your general knowledge! All of the Against the Clock apps are free to download and are compatible with a range of Apple products.

Available on the iPhone, iPad and iPod platforms.

busuu.com

While technically not a game, busuu.com provides apps for users to ‘learn languages on the go’ and the tool is available in nine different languages including French, Russian, Portuguese, Turkish and English. The free version of the app contains 20 learning units, although additional content can be purchased. Levels range from beginner to advanced, and once downloaded the app is fully accessible without an internet connection.

Available on the Android, iPhone and iPad platforms.

Math Workout

An extremely popular brain training game designed to enhance mental arithmetic and your ability to make fairly difficult calculations quickly. The app contains several mini-activities which can be attempted at varying levels of difficulty, and so it is suitable for both adults and children. You can choose to play against yourself, friends and family or other players from around the world. Games include the Math Blaster Challenge, The Brain Cruncher and Times Table Practice among others. It’s currently only available on the Android marketplace but will soon be coming to the iPhone.

Available on the Android platform.

Alchemy

In this game you start off with the four basic elements of earth, wind, water and fire, and then need to combine them and their products to create more than 300 other elements. It’s a game of logic and, for the most part, pure guess work! For example water and fire combine to make alcohol, which is fairly self-explanatory. Dust and water combine to make mud, so far so good. However, it’s less obvious that metal combines with bird to make airplane. This game can keep a person entertained and alert for hours, and it’s certainly one of the most popular game apps on the Android market.

Available on the Android and iPhone platforms.

National Flags Quiz

This app lets you test your knowledge of more than 200 national flags from around the world and comes in two different game modes. The practice mode is great for learning which flag belongs to which country, as it’s untimed and gives you the correct answer if you get one wrong. The timed mode challenges you to name 50 flags at random and you are scored on speed and accuracy.

Available on the Windows Phone 7 platform.

Dropwords

This is a word-finding puzzle which is a sort of cross between Scrabble and Boggle. It challenges the user to find words within a grid size of their choosing and scores are based on length of words and the letters used. It offers a multiplier bonus when a word of four letters of longer has been submitted and also includes a ‘shuffle’ and a ‘discard’ option when things get sticky. The length of a game depends on how many time bonuses the player gets. It requires a fair amount of concentration to get a good score, but is incredibly addictive.

Available on the Android platform.

There are also many well-known brain training and educational games that have a wide range of apps dedicated to them, and so are available across all platforms. Below is a list of probably the most popular games.

Wordsearch

Wordsearch games are a nice way to wake your brain up and ease you into your working day, as they don’t require as much concentration as some other mobile games. There are hundreds of wordsearch apps on the market, all of which are looking to give their own spin on the word puzzle, and so cover a wide variety of subject areas and themes. For a slightly more intense wordsearch game, why not try one where you need to complete it against the clock?

Sudoku

A brain training game which uses numbers but has nothing to do with maths. A favourite with lots of people and with so many variations of this game available on every single mobile platform, there’s no excuse not to have it on your phone. Most apps will offer Sudoku at varying levels of difficulty and will have an endless supply of games for you to dip in and out of at your leisure.

Tetris

The well-known game where players have to slot falling blocks of varying size and shape together to make complete lines is just as popular on mobile platforms as it has been on every other games console and computer operating system it has been available on, which is almost all of them. On most apps users will be able to choose what level they play at, so that they are able to tackle increasingly more difficult games.

Crossword

Another word-based game app, but crosswords usually require slightly more brain power than wordsearches, as they will either have general knowledge or cryptic clues. Again, this is the type of game that will have several hundred apps dedicated to it across all platforms, with variation mostly coming from subject areas.

Scrabble

There are several different Scrabble-type apps on the mobile game market, but only one official app from Electronic Arts which is available for free on all smartphone platforms. With the official app you can be playing up to 50 games at any one time against either friends or random opponents, and they don’t even have to be playing Scrabble on the same mobile platform as you. The official Scrabble app also shows you the best word choice from your previous move, so you can get better as you play.

Not all of these educational games will appeal to everyone, but it’s probably fair to say that there’s enough variety within the market, that there will be something for everyone. While there is no proof that interactive mobile games are effective educational tools, the majority most definitely have the ability to keep your mind active during otherwise idle moments.