Sharpening your mind doesn’t always have to be boring. What most people don’t know is that brain exercises can come in the form of fun activities. The element of play can keep things interesting. And it is only in recent years that experts discovered that video games help a person’s brain in different ways. Video games are said to have benefits in hand-eye coordination, memory, and problem-solving skills.
If you’re looking to have fun while improving your brain power at the same time, here are five games that might do the trick.
1. Online Chess
Chess has been played for hundreds of years. With 64 squares, 8 pawns, 2 bishops, 2 knights, 2 rooks, a piece of a queen, and a king for each player, you can come up with countless variations that can get your brain to work. You have a long list of openings, not to mention, complicated mid-games and endgames. With all these things combined, chess can test your analytical skills and also your mental stamina.
But over the years, chess evolved. Today, people play the game online. Platforms such as chess.com and Lichess revolutionized how people learn the game by including artificial intelligence. Stockfish is among the most accessible and handy AI programs that can evaluate your games, prompting the user if the move is a blunder or if it’s the best move.
If you’re serious about your rating while playing online, you need a strong internet connection. In some situations, your mobile data won’t be enough. If so, you might get tempted to connect to public WiFi. If you ever connect to public WiFi, be sure to get a fast VPN for PC, laptop, and mobile devices. This ensures that you can keep your information safe, while you get to enjoy chess online when you’re not at home.
2. Crossword Puzzle
A crossword puzzle is a great way to improve your vocabulary and even delay the onset of dementia according to a study. You can answer one in the newspaper or you can even buy a book that features hundreds of crossword puzzles.
If you’re not a wide reader and you don’t have a wide vocabulary, this is also a great tool to learn new words. The good thing about crossword puzzles is that you don’t need to be a genius to become good at this game. You can also use try to see the correct answer if you feel that you’ve exhausted all your efforts and you still can’t figure out some of the words. This can still help expand your vocabulary.
3. RPG Games
Role Playing Games ranging from Resident Evil to Final Fantasy series may take a lot of time to finish but they can be a good way to improve your brain power.
This type of game allows users to step into the character’s shoes, figure out puzzles, and make decisions that will later have consequences in the game.
Whether you’re using a PC, Xbox, or Playstation, you can never run out of options choosing the right Role Playing Game for you. In a study, it was proven that this type of game can improve long-term memory along with reasoning, and supervisory abilities.
4. Sudoku
Another game that can help train your brain is Sudoku. The objective of this logic-based game is to fill in the 9×9 grid with digits to make sure that the numbers 1 to 9 appear horizontally and vertically without repeating the digits in each line. This might sound simple but playing the game can be challenging.
You will have to use techniques such as scanning the rows and columns to make sure that you’re not repeating the numbers. Solving a Sudoku puzzle requires both knowledge of the basics of the game and analytical skills.
5. Fruit Ninja
Fruit Ninja is another great game that can help improve a person’s brain power. But unlike the other games that we have mentioned, Fruit Ninja helps develop a person’s hand-eye coordination. This also improves a person’s focus as you need to figure out which fruit you need to slice first.
There are many ways how you can get smarter, be more logical, or even be more attentive. If you’re interested in improving your brain power, in a fun and exciting way, these five games can help you. You’ll be surprised by how these games can help you improve in different areas of your life.
