Brain Test: Tricky Puzzles

My Experience with Brain Test: Tricky Puzzles

I first heard about this app from another parent at my son’s soccer practice last fall. She said her kids loved it and it kept them busy during car rides. So I figured I’d give it a shot on my Samsung Galaxy S23. Honestly, I was looking for something that wasn’t another mindless shooter or candy-crushing time waster. This one delivers. The puzzles are tricky, like the name says, but not in a frustrating way for me as an adult. Some of them make you think way outside the box—like turning your phone upside down or shaking it. My ten-year-old daughter got stuck on level 47 for a whole Saturday afternoon, and even I couldn’t figure it out until day three. That’s when I caved and used the hint button. The humor is silly, sometimes downright goofy, but it’s clean. No swearing or inappropriate stuff, which is a big deal for me as a parent. The graphics are bright and cartoonish, nothing too intense. My only real complaint after a year is that some puzzles feel like they’re designed to waste your time rather than challenge you. Like, you have to tap a tiny pixel in the corner or something. But overall, it’s a solid distraction for both kids and grown-ups.

Features Worth Noting

The biggest feature for me is the offline mode. We drove from Chicago to St. Louis last spring break, and my kids played this the whole way without needing data. That saved me from buying a separate hotspot plan for the car. There are over 275 puzzles, which sounds like a lot, but honestly, my family blew through those in about six months. The developers are good about releasing updates with new levels, though—I’d say every couple months, there’s a fresh batch. The hints are helpful, but you only get a few for free before you have to wait or watch an ad. For a free app, that’s fair, I guess. The game also tracks your progress across levels, so my son can jump back in where he left off without me having to reset anything. One thing I really appreciate is the variety: some puzzles are word-based, some are math, some are visual tricks. My daughter hates math but loves the picture ones, while my son is all about the wordplay. So it keeps both of them interested. The controls are simple—mostly tapping and dragging. No complicated swiping or multi-touch stuff that confuses younger kids.

What Needs Work

Okay, here’s where I get a little honest. The hints system is too stingy. After you use up your first three free hints, you have to either watch a 30-second ad or wait something like two hours for one hint to regenerate. My kids don’t have the patience for that, so I end up having to unlock hints myself or they just give up and close the app. Also, some puzzles are just plain unfair. There was one level where you had to tap a tiny fly on the screen, but the fly moves fast and blends into the background. My son started crying because he couldn’t catch it. That’s when I realized the game isn’t always designed for younger kids—some puzzles feel like they’re made for teens or adults. The repetition is another issue. After the first 100 levels, a lot of the puzzles follow the same formula: “find the hidden object” or “shake the phone.” It gets old after a while. I wish there were more puzzle types to mix things up. And the ads—ugh. They’re not constant, but they pop up between levels, and sometimes a full-screen ad plays before you even get to the next puzzle. My kids know not to click on them, but it’s annoying.

Pricing

The app is free to download, and you can play all 275+ levels without paying a dime. There are ads, as I mentioned, but you can remove them with a one-time purchase. I think it’s like $4.99 or something—I haven’t done it yet, but I’ve considered it just to stop the interruptions. There’s also an option to buy extra hints, but I’ve never gone that route. For a free game, the value is decent. You’re not getting nickel-and-dimed like some apps that ask for a subscription every month. My only worry is that my kids might accidentally buy something, but the in-app purchases are behind a password prompt on my Samsung, so that’s fine. If you’re a parent on a budget, this is a good pick. You’re not pressured to spend unless you really want to.

Developer Notes

Unico Studio seems to be actively updating the game. I’ve gotten about four or five updates in the past year. They add new levels and fix bugs—sometimes after an update, a puzzle that was broken or glitchy suddenly works. I contacted support once last February because a level was stuck on a loading screen. I emailed them through the app’s help section. They got back to me in about four days—not lightning fast, but the response was actually helpful. They told me to clear the app cache, and that fixed it. I appreciate that they didn’t just send a generic “try again” message. They also have a social media presence, but I don’t follow that kind of thing. Overall, the developer seems like they care about the product.

Security & Privacy

This was honestly my biggest concern before I let my kids use it. The app asks for minimal permissions—just storage access to save game data. No camera, no microphone, no location tracking. That’s a huge relief. There’s no chat feature or friend list, so no strangers can contact my kids. The ads are the only potential risk, but I’ve checked the ad content and it’s all standard stuff—like other games, fast food, or toy commercials. No sketchy dating or gambling ads. The privacy policy is readable, which is rare. It says they collect anonymous usage data for analytics, but nothing personally identifiable. I checked it because I’m paranoid like that. For a free game from a third-party developer, I feel pretty safe letting my eight-year-old son play it on his own tablet.