Parents Know Best has featured a lot of different games, from board games to card games to video games, and in general, it seems like the simpler the idea, the better. A game doesn’t necessarily need to make noise or require batteries in order to be fun. No Brainer from Hasbro seems to suffer from the “fancier is not always better” problem.
We had a mom and son team (age 7) try it out and unfortunately a problem with the game led to some tears. The idea seems simple enough--put the “brain” on your head and wait for it to ask you a question. Shake your head yes or no to answer the question and the “brain” will tell you if you are indeed correct. Unfortunately, the “brain” wasn’t always accurate in determining whether the player had answered yes or no--the mom estimated that it worked about 80 percent of the time. The biggest problem with this malfunction is that the game increases in level only as long as the answers are correct; one wrong answer sends you back to level one. Eventually the son got so frustrated that he refused to play anymore. The mom then tried the game out herself and while it didn’t malfunction as often as it did when her son was playing, it was still occasionally inaccurate. With all the different games available for kids these days, is it really worth spending money on something that doesn’t work all the time?
No Brainer is recommended for ages 6 and up and retails for $19.99. For more information visit
www.hasbro.com.