I’ve been playing with a software package I got for Christmas called Mind Quiz. The program is a clunky attempt to capitalize on the “stretch-your-mind-with-puzzles” craze that’s sweeping the nation like an overcharged Roomba. I have never been able to get the sound on Mind Quiz to work. I can’t manually adjust levels for certain sorts of puzzles to make them harder. Little on-screen buttons like “pass” appear unexplained in the middle of puzzles I’m working on that turn out to mean “capitulate,” since pressing such buttons causes you to automatically end the puzzle rather than set it aside as “pass” might seem to suggest. MindQuiz maker Ubisoft really needs to rework the structure of this puzzle package.

After playing a few rounds it’s become apparent that Ubisoft needs to rework the content, too. The “right” answers can be so arbitrarily defined as to drive one mad. For instance, in one round of an anagram game, the solution “River Rhine” is deemed correct, but the solution “Rhine River” merits an irredeemable incorrect mark. Yet later on in the same round, the “Yangtze River” is deemed correct while the “River Yangtze” would be incorrect. These kind of inconsistencies are especially irksome in a computer program designed to hone thinking skills.