Up Down Left Right

Ported from the mobile environment, Not Not A Brain Buster is simple but challenging brain teasing reaction based puzzle game. Enjoyable when played in five-minute increments, this Switch port has a new multiplayer feature and only costs a couple of bucks on the eShop.

Using only a single analog stick, the player simply has to press one of the four cardinal directions according to the message displayed on-screen. For example, if the word “up” appears, the player needs to press that direction or receives a penalty.  It sounds easy enough but you will start to second-guess yourself when the message “not left” appears.  Meaning, the player can press anything other than the left button.  Then, it only grows in complexity when the messaging reads such things as “not not down” or “not blue” or “nothing” or “not nothing.”  Since the player only has a couple seconds to read and react to the message, gameplay is faster paced than expected.

Classic Mode is one level after another.  Challenge Mode is an endurance round in which the player goes for as long as possible without making a mistake. Then there is the inclusion of multiplayer mode in which each player must out perform the competition.  In terms of presentation, there isn’t much to look at and even less to hear but the minimalistic design works well enough to get the job done. There is an option to toggle colorblind mode.

For a $2 game, expectations can only be so high.  While the gameplay’s challenge might grow to frustrate some players, Not Not A Brain Buster can act as a mindless time waster when played solo or as a casual multiplayer game when waiting for your turn in-between Smash tournaments.

Not As Good As: a WarioWare game

Don’t Forget About: You, Me, and the Cubes (WiiWare)  

Also Try: Squares (PS Vita)

By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com

Twitter: @ZackGaz