7 Games for Smart People or Those That Want to Pretend at Least

Ace Attorney Series

The Ace Attorney series is a visual novel that puts you in the shoes of Phoenix Wright, a defense attorney who ends up working for some pretty strange characters that have been placed on trial for a crime that they may or may not have committed.

At first, you get to collect evidence, question eyewitnesses, and examine objects at the crime scene, but then soon after, the real meat of the game begins. Being in court in Ace Attorney can go on for hours and hours, depending on the severity of the case.

It’s your job to listen to the witness’ testimonies, read over your pages of evidence items/files, find contradictions, and present evidence to knock the prosecutor out of the courtroom to save your clients.

Ace Attorney is chockful of those “Aha” moments and every single of them is super satisfying and will make you feel like a much smarter human being as you cleverly unfold the ridiculous plot twists in the story.

Brain Age

Brain Age on the Nintendo DS challenged players to start up this title at least once a day so that you can essentially become a healthier human being with a strong brain.

Brain Age had a couple of fun little mini-games that involved math, puzzles, writing, and a couple of other subjects. After you take a short test with a few questions and activities, the game would then determine the age of your brain, based on your answers and how quickly you solved the answers.

There’s no other game that trains your brain as much as Brain Age did back on the DS, and now, thanks to Nintendo, my Brain Age sits at a healthy 89. I’m actually 25 so I definitely need to play a little bit more.

The Witness

The Witness puts players onto a sprawling island with tons and tons of…difficult puzzles to solve. That might not be your idea of an ideal vacation, but this is no family trip as The Witness pushes you to learn the rules of the world without any proper tutorials or help.

You can pretty much go at your own pace solving the levels on each region of the island. While all of the puzzles have the same goal of drawing a path on a grid, in order for that to be the solution, certain requirements have to be met.

If you get to a puzzle that’s too difficult or above your knowledge level, you can always leave to another one and come back later once you understand the rules that were introduced.

Professor Layton Series

If you’re a fan of solving all types of riddles and puzzles, Professor Layton is the series for you my friends. Imagine a quaint town where every single villager has a riddle for you to solve whenever you say hi to them.

This may be the worst nightmare for some people, but for the puzzle lovers out there, you will be satisfied whenever you finally figure out the solutions.

In Professor Layton, you get rewarded currency based on many times you try to guess the answer to a riddle. If you get it on the first try, you get the maximum amount but if you keep guessing the wrong answer, you might as well just look online for the solutions.

Picross Series

The Picross series of games have mostly appeared on the Nintendo DS family of systems as well as the Nintendo Switch.

Picross may look kind of boring and unentertaining from first looks, but don’t judge a book by its over, because Picross is one of those games that will rack your brain and force you to think outside the box.

The game gives you hints as to where the colored blocks are, but it won’t show you the exact points that aren’t empty spots, because where is the fun in that.

There are also themed-Picross games like Pokemon Picross and Mario’s Picross that have you completing a pixelated version of Pikachu or Mario. These bring the fun to the table as you don’t know what the image is until you get closer to completing the puzzles.

Zero Escape

The Zero Escape series started back in the DS games with the release of 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors; a visual novel that had multiple endings depending on the paths you chose and the decisions you make.

The main character wakes up in a jail cell to find that himself along with a group of other hostages have been thrown into a game of life that will require trust, coordination, and a keen eye for detail.

You’ll run into a ton of puzzle rooms in the Zero Escape series that will make you go through a series of steps in order to escape them.

These are not just simple block puzzles or hacking minigames –these are full-fledged puzzles that will hurt your brain if you take too long to figure it out.

Not only that, the series loves to toss out scientific concepts and cool logic theories as part of its story. By the time you reach the end of the series, you can safely consider yourself an expert on the Monty Hall problem, morphogenetic field theory and Schroedinger’s Cat.

Portal 2

Portal 2 is remembered as one of the best multiplayer puzzle games out there.

The premise is simple yet effective: you are in possession of a Portal Gun that shoots out portals, allowing you to connect two portals together to escape rooms, launch yourself to far distances, and to move objects around.

You’re presented with a vast variety of challenges, and playing with a second person will definitely help you out, but getting through the entire game’s levels might make you scratch your head just a couple of times.