BRAINCRAFT (Brain Training)

What is Braincraft app?

Braincraft contains many different games that challenge children to employ different types of thinking skills. There are puzzles based on numbers, logic, mental flexibility and more.  

It has the graphical finesse of a game, and the different challenges are linked by a theme of surviving on a desert island. Players can see how they have improved using the app's leaderboards and compare themselves to their siblings and friends. 

What we love about Braincraft

The games in Braincraft are very varied, both in the skills that they address and the gameplay that they offer. All are beautiful to look at and easy to play, even as they challenge the player's thinking skills. While the graphics are cartoony, they are suitable for children throughout primary or elementary school. 

Braincraft records each player's performance in a good level of detail that shows their strengths and weaknesses. It rates them against other players generally and those whom they nominate as friends. This adds an incentive to play beyond the graphical and gameplay rewards offered by the app. 

What skills does it improve?

Each of the games in Braincraft is from one of the following categories:

• Selective attention
• Sustainable attention
• Problem-solving
• Cognitive flexibility
• Memory
• Processing speed
• Maths
• Verbal

Although some of these categories reflect typical school subjects, Braincraft's structure provides a more holistic challenge. Its games encourage children to think about problems and solve them. 

What age is it appropriate for?

Braincraft app is rated as being suitable for children three years old and above. It reads its instructions aloud, so young children's limited literacy skills are no obstacle to playing the app. It will depend on each child, but it is best suited to those between about five and ten. 

Is Braincraft easy to use?

All of the games use an intuitive method of interaction, and navigating through the various screens is easy. If teachers or parents want to check on the progress of multiple children, they will have to log in and out of the different accounts, which is not difficult but could be time-consuming. 

How will students benefit?

Students will find the app enjoyable to use. Its varied games are easy to understand either through their spoken instructions or by just picking them up and playing. 

Kids will enjoy seeing how their performance places them on the overall, weekly, and friend-based leaderboards. This competitive aspect will encourage many children to dedicate themselves to improving their skills. 

How will teachers benefit?

Multiple children can use the app as each user has their own log-in details. The app does not have any of the risky aspects of social media, but players can nominate friends and see how they have performed in comparison. Teachers could use this facility to encourage their whole class to do their best as it promotes friendly competition among players. 

Braincraft is fun and provides excellent practise of thinking skills. It would work very well for enriching children's educational activities at school. This could be either an activity that children could use when they have finished other work early or as a reward session. 

How will parents benefit?

Braincraft is ideal for parents who want to give their child something entertaining to play on their mobile devices but are not mindless or violent games. It looks like a game, and the activities are good fun - children should not find playing the app to be a chore. Braincraft feels like a puzzle game rather than a learning app, but it still has a solid educational dimension. 

What Braincraft can improve on?

There are a few instances where the games' explanations are a little awkwardly worded or the grammar is not correct, such as the use of 'lifes' instead of 'lives'. These do not hurt the user's enjoyment of the app and are minor errors that developers usually catch and update over time. 

The app's update history shows that it is well-supported by its developer, who has added new games and fixed bugs. 

There are two aspects of Braincraft app that teachers who want to use it in the classroom should consider:

The activities can only be accessed when the player unlocks them. Teachers might find some games suitable for the class to play together on a shared screen, but they can't easily access them. Adding a mode that lets teachers access the games in any order would make it much more useful in the classroom.

Each player of the app has to have their own log-in details based upon an email address. This is fine for using the app with one or two children but could be unwieldy for school use. It is more practical for schools to have a single email address controlling multiple accounts defined by different user names.

How much does Braincraft cost?

Braincraft app is free to download, and once you register an account, it is playable in a limited form.   

What is included with the free version vs. paid?

You open up all of the games and features of the Braincraft app by taking out a subscription. Three terms are available: three months, six months and twelve months. The monthly rate is lower for the longer terms, so consider them if your kids look likely to use the app for six months or more. 

Is Braincraft safe to use?

There is no content inappropriate for children in the app. While children can nominate other players as friends, they will only see their relative performance - there are no messaging facilities.   

There are no advertisements in the trial version of the app nor the full version. 

Overall rating of the app

Braincraft distinguishes itself from many other brain-training apps with the diversity, variation, and visual design of its games. The app's theme of completing challenges to survive on a remote island provides a fun structure to the game, and its leaderboards enhance it further. 

This isn't an app designed to address specific school subjects but rather help children's thinking mature in a holistic way. By checking this app out through its free download and trial, you can see if that is something your child will respond well towards. Braincraft app is rated at five stars in this review, so it could well be. 

You can download BRAINCRAFT (Brain Training) on your iOS or Android devices from the app stores. Download the BRAINCRAFT (Brain Training) app from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store.