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Brain Quest: Grades 5 & 6

(2008, Video Games - Educational, Rated E)
  • Is it age appropriate?

    About our ratings

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    Not age appropriate for kids under 9, age appropriate for kids over 10; suggested age 10.
  • Is it any good?

    4.0
  • Common Sense says

    Show off your smarts in grade-level quiz game.

Why We Rated This on for Ages 10 and Up

The good stuff

  • Educational value:

    Does a great job of drilling academic questions covering 5th and 6th grade math, English, science
  • Messages:

    The game celebrates learning academic facts. Characters in game are racially diverse.
 

What to watch out for

  • Violence:

    Not an issue.
  • Sex:

    Not an issue.
  • Language:

    Not an issue.
  • Consumerism:

    This is a video game based on the Brain Quest flash cards and workbooks.
  • Drinking, drugs, & smoking:

    Not an issue.
 

What Parents Need to Know

This review of Brain Quest: Grades 5 & 6 was written by Jinny Gudmundsen

Parents need to know that this Nintendo DS game incorporates 6000 of the Brain Quest grade-specific questions within its learning games. Parents looking for games with educational content for kids will be excited to discover this Nintendo DS game. It has good single player modes as well as multiplayer modes for both cooperative and competitive play using just one DS. It does a good job of representing culturally diverse characters within its games.

Families Can Talk About

Talk to your kids about the media in their life. We have more tools and tips that can help
  • Families can talk about what was the most unusual fact that you learned from playing this game? Do you have an academic subject that you like best? Which is it and why? Is this game more fun alone or when played with friends?
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More on Brain Quest: Grades 5 & 6

What’s the Story?

Brain Quest flashcards and workbooks just got a techie facelift. BRAIN QUEST: GRADES 5& 6, a game for the Nintendo DS, incorporates 6000 questions typically found in fifth and sixth grade curriculum into video game playing. These questions appear in three different modes: Quest, Brain, and Multiplayer and cover the following academic subjects: math, science, English, geography, history, and a catch-all category called "Grab Bag." In each of the modes, kids play to earn points and accolades. The points can be traded in for stickers to use in an art designing area. There is also a robust Sudoku Mode offering 4 x 4, 6 x 6, and 9 x 9 Sudoku Puzzles.

In the Quest Mode, which provides a light story to help motivate kids to tackle the questions, you become a contestant in the Quest Extreme Games festival. Each Extreme Game represents an academic subject. For example, to compete in a soccer match, you will do math challenges. With the Brain Mode, you jump right in and start answering questions delivered in rounds of 5 questions each. And in the Multiplayer Modes, you can play cooperatively or competitively with a friend using just one Nintendo DS and one game cartridge. Close

Is It Any Good?

Brain Quest delivers on its slogan "It's Fun to Be Smart" with a snappy presentation of academic questions in a video game format. While this isn't a traditional video game with cutting edge gameplay and deep storytelling, it does a great job of making learning fun by mixing up the format of the questions. You'll find multiple choice, select an image, matching, sorting, fill-in-the-blank, word builder (add a letter to the beginning of a word to change into another word), and crossout (cross out a letter in a misspelled word) questions. Accompanying you while you answer these questions with your the DS stylus, is uplifting funky music. Plus the game is always telling you how good you are when you answer questions correctly. This game is so supportive that even reluctant learners will want to play.

For years, families have used Brain Quest cards to help pass the time while traveling. But the cards always worked best when others played along. With this electronic version, playing along is still possible, just now, playing solo is equally as fun. Close

Publisher’s Details

Released on 09/30/2008, price $29.99, not online enabled
ESRB rating: E (for (No Descriptors))

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