In addition to the exercise mode, there are a few meager offerings which attempt to round out the title. Balance check lets you check your ambidexterity as you go while L vs. R places your hands in a maze race. First you'll play with your good hand and record ghost data; then you'll play with your off hand and race against the ghost data. L vs. R only contains the maze game which hardly warrants being given its own separate mode.

A visual graph for recorded data is available, but it only tracks your overall score in each difficulty level. The inability to record and chart your progress from day-to-day or over a longer period of time - a popular feature found in other similar training games - seems like a substantial design flaw. This takes away much of the incentive to come back and keep playing the same batch of basic games over and over again. A DS download feature lets you give friends an opportunity to test their ambidexterity or compete against you for higher scores in one of three multi-player games.

Much like the mini-games themselves, the visuals are nothing to write home about. The point of the package is clearly not about wowing players with top-notch graphics, but it doesn't hurt to have a little flair here and there. The only character in the game is your host: a hastily scribbled hand with legs, eyes, and a mouth. He's actually pretty cute. When he's not providing simplistic play instruction, the little guy alternates between cheering you on with little dances if you do well and freaking out and balling into a grumpy clenched fist if you mess up.

Left Brain, Right Brain is an interesting training game idea that unfortunately suffers from a lack of depth and an occasional feeling of pointlessness. Initially, it's fun to try testing out your hands' abilities, but within an hour or so most players will have already completed the bulk of the 15 mini-games and exhausted any other features. The gameplay gets stale quickly without the ability to track data over time or unlock additional content. If you count yourself a lover of training games, there is some benefit to be gained by putting up the $20 for a little hand training. Whether or not you'll actually come out the other end with a substantially greater level of ambidexterity is anybody's guess, but you're likely to have some fleeting entertainment in the process.

By Nathan Meunier
CCC Freelance Writer

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