Whether you’re on lunch at work and you’ve got five minutes to kill, or you want to start building a bit of brain training into your daily routine, these games all offer a bit of exercise for your most important muscle.
Just like your glutes or your biceps, your brain needs regular exercise or it starts to get sluggish. Learning a new language or paying for brain training is one way to exercise your brain, but another way that’s a lot more fun is playing games.
Choosing the right kind of games is important of course, but that’s where we come in. We’ve curated a list of games that will help you to think in new and different ways, giving your brain a workout and being fun at the same time. Here’s our pick!
Bacarrat
There are all kinds of games at cafe casino that encourage you to think strategically, logically, or sometimes just quickly, but we enjoy Bacarrat in particular because it is one of the less commonly played casino games. A lot of us already know how to play poker, or blackjack, and learning the rules of a new game is actually one of the most beneficial parts of the gaming process, as far as your brain is concerned.
So, if you’re not familiar with the rules of baccarat then getting online and learning will really give your brain a boost.
Other Games You Might Enjoy
If you already happen to be a baccarat whizz then you could pick up poker, craps, blackjack, or hearts instead. All of these games require you to have basic number skills and improve your memory by learning winning combinations.
Some of them will help you to perform more easily under pressure and others will improve your mental maths, in particular blackjack. Working on your strengths is always nice, but picking out your weaknesses and working on those will give you the biggest rewards over time.
Minecraft
Next on our list is a multi-console game that’s been at the top of many a wishlist for more than a decade now, Minecraft. This game has an open-world format and encourages players to do exactly as they please.
They might choose to fight off monsters, build an underground bunker, create the palace of their dreams, or run around throwing chickens everywhere. Minecraft breeds creativity in a really special way, which is something that everyone’s brain could use a little more of.
Improve Your Creativity
If you want to improve your creativity even further then using Minecraft mods can help to make your gaming experience more unique. You could change the look of those chickens, and make greater variety in trees, as well as countless other ways of modifying your game. The company behind Minecraft even believes that installing mods aligns with their ethos of allowing freedom of creativity for all.
Chess
Chess is well known as one of the best games for great minds, but it’s not an elitist club. Even if you don’t consider yourself the brainiest of the bunch, chess could help you to improve that. There are a lot of benefits to playing chess, including that it can help you to improve your memory and deepen your focus, both traits that our media-driven world has reduced in us.
Where to Improve
If you want to start playing chess then it’s always possible to play online. However, some people find that the additional social element of going to a local chess club, or playing on the outdoor tables at the park brings something extra satisfying to their life.
Meeting people with the same interests as you is always enriching and if you can achieve that whilst exercising your brain then so much the better.
Scrabble
If you’re looking to improve your language skills then there are plenty of word games to choose from, but Scrabble is definitely one of the best. If you’ve not played before then in order to win you must use your seven counters to make a word that fits and intersects with one of the words already on the board.
The harder it is to use a letter the more points you score, especially when placed on any of the special squares.
Winning Strategies
There’s hot debate about the best ways to win at Scrabble but one that many people agree on is that knowing lots of short words will help. Whilst it might seem nonsensical, knowing two and three-letter words can help you to place words on high-scoring and difficult-to-reach tiles. This can make all the difference in the later game.
Sudoku
Finally, Sudoku is already a favorite game for many of us, but if you haven’t played before then it’s not too late to start. Sudoku is super easy to access online but can be found in the gaming section of most newspapers.
All you need to do is make sure that each row, column, and square has the numbers one through nine in it. The harder the puzzle, the fewer numbers there will be to start with.
History of Sudoku
Many people assume that Sudoku was invented in Japan, but it was actually invented in the United States. However, Sudoku only got its name when it travelled across to Japan and was taken up with great enthusiasm. It’s still one of the most popular Japanese puzzle games to date.