In the last two – almost three years now – we’ve all been living in the aftermath of a global pandemic, which is one of the reasons why it’s quite important to keep our brains sharp. After all, we’ve been denied social interactions and gatherings, we haven’t been able to travel, and most of us worked from home, and in most cases, we’ve all been bored.
If you want to ensure that you don’t start experiencing what scientists called “the pandemic fog”, you could opt for playing some offline and online games that won’t only provide you with hours of fun, but they’ll also keep your cognitive functions up to par.
Here is a list of the nine most popular brain training games that you should definitely try in 2024:
1. For The Creative – “Traditional Puzzles”
When my country’s government announced that a lockdown has been implemented, the very first thing that I did was stock up on jigsaw puzzles. Besides allowing me to have fun with my partner, I also realized that I can exercise both hemispheres of my brain.
They do require you to think logically and in a creative way, and because of this, it has been quite easy for me to spend hours on them. Later on, I decided to frame some of them, thus, I ended up with some really cool décor for my apartment.
2. For The Competitive – “Scrabble”
I was lucky enough to spend some time with my family members this summer, and one of the things that we often opted for doing was play Scrabble! It’ll require you to concentrate on one task in front of you and besides training your mind, it’ll also help you enhance your vocabulary.
It’s considered one of the best games to develop and improve cognitive functions, and the fact that it has been around since 1948 proves that it has been one of the best family games ever.
3. For The Number Enthusiasts – “Sudoku”
If you’re like me, you probably like solving Sudoku. These numeral puzzles will require you to fill a grid with digits going from 1 to 9, however, you can only write them once in a box, row, or column.
This classic and fun game will help you enhance your concentration and deduction skills, and now, you could even find options that’ll require you to fill in grids with numbers going from 1 to 16! Additionally, there are ones that feature letters, but I find them less interesting.
4. For The Daring – “Magnetic Cubes”
If you can easily solve a Rubrik’s Cube, you should definitely try solving a magnetic cube instead! They work in the same principle as the traditional puzzle cube, however, they’re so much more interesting and fun to solve because there are magnets. Also, they make amazing decorations and if you want to see some of the magnetic cubes that you can opt for purchasing, you can find them here.
5. For The Logical Thinkers – “Chess”
We’ve all watched or read the “Queen’s Gambit” while quarantining, which is why you might have gotten inspired and started playing chess more often! It’s a perfect board game for improving your brain function, you can play it online against real people, in real-time, and you’ll most likely notice that your cognitive functions, concentration, and strategic thinking have enhanced! It’s also one of those games that you can spend an hour on a match, so, don’t be afraid to try it.
6. For The Tech-Savvy – “Peak”
One of the applications that I really didn’t regret installing on my smartphone is “Peak”. It features more than 30 mind training pastimes and it’ll enable you to choose from several game categories including memory, mental capabilities, coordination, mathematics, and so on. You can think of it as a way to give your brain a really challenging workout session, and you should know that it’s based on research from organizations such as Cambridge.
7. For The Old School – “Tetris”
We’ve all played Tetris at some point in our lives, and even though you could opt for purchasing the real deal, you can now choose to play Tetris online, but with a twist – against other people!
Whenever I don’t know what to do, I play a couple of rounds – or even more of them – and by doing so, I can prevent myself from being bored, but more importantly, I can improve my logic, cognitive, hand-eye coordination, and creativity skills.
8. For Children – “Memory Cards”
If you have kids, you could play memory cards with them. Of course, you could purchase them online, however, if you wish to ensure that you spend some quality time with them, choose to make your own – which can also provide us with brain training.
It’ll be incredibly fun for your kids to make these cards, which will in return make them even more eager to sit down and try to match all of them for several hours.
9. For a True Challenge – “Riddles”
Last on this list, but equally beneficial and fun as everything we’ve mentioned is solving riddles! There are several types of them – including question, phrase, and statement riddles – nonetheless, they can prove to be quite challenging to solve. If you choose some complex options available on the Internet, you may end up attempting to solve them for hours, and by doing so, you’ll be capable of exercising your mind.
10. Klondike Solitaire
Playing Solitaire is a great way to train your brain. The goal of the game is to remove all cards from the board by sorting them correctly. You may think this is an easy task, but it really isn’t! To win this game, players need to plan three moves in advance. They will not be able to move on if they do not plan ahead. This makes Solitaire a true brain teaser.
Bonus – Video Games Are Also an Option
Although most individuals don’t realize it, video games can actually provide us with a wide range of benefits. From improving your hand-eye coordination to allowing you to be strategic and bold, video games could definitely help your brain thrive.
Keep in mind, they can be addictive, thus, ensure that you don’t spend too much time playing them, mostly because they could end up damaging your eyes – something that you can prevent by purchasing and wearing blue light glasses!
Conclusion
Whether you have to quarantine yourself for two weeks or if you simply want to give your brain the workout it needs, one of the games we’ve mentioned above will definitely allow you to do just that, especially since they’re all focused on improving a wide range of mental functions.
Since you’ve now learned what interesting, fun, and beneficial brain games you can opt for playing, you shouldn’t spend any more of your free time on this article. Instead, if you haven’t tried some of the aforementioned online or offline games, try them out, and determine which ones you like best!
