Left Brain Right Brain is really not what I expected this game to be. The back of the box asks, "Are you right-brained or left-brained?" Then they talk about "right-brain" people supposedly thinking more creatively and "left-brain" people thinking more logically. From this they jump to the actual purpose of the game — testing your ambidexterity and supposedly giving you a game to improve it.

Ambidexterity is the skill of being able to use your right hand and left hand (more generally, your dominant side and non-dominant side) equally. The theory seems to be that if you can improve the skill of your non-dominant hand, you are actually increasing brain power. I've read some discussion lately that the whole "left-brain logical" and "right-brain creative" isn't as cut and dry as all that, what with brains being far more complex than people had realized. But while interesting (to me anyway), that's kind of beyond the scope of this review.

You'll quickly find that your host in Left Brain Right Brain is a pencil sketch of a hand. It has little eyes and a mouth so that it can express how well or poorly you're doing. As far as I can tell, they didn't bother to give the little hand dude a name.

The opening screen gives you options for Ambidexterity Check, Exercises, DS Download Play and Options.

The ambidexterity check is a rough series of tests to see how ambidextrous you are. You tell the DS which hand is dominant for you. You'll do the tests with your dominant hand first and then with your off-hand. When it's done, you'll get a little comparison of the results. This first set of games also is your introduction to what you'll be doing a lot with this program — rotating the DS so that the touchscreen is on the right side for the right-hand exercises and on the left side for the left-hand exercises.

The first test shows you boxes — just a few at first, and it gradually increases. You have to tap the green square with your stylus. You're trying to see how many you get right within the time limit (I think about 30 seconds). The second test is kind of like playing scratch lottery tickets but with a stylus. You're looking for a specific word "hit" hidden "under" one of the silver circles. Yes, the scratching with the stylus is a handedness skill, but when you have multiple covered circles, there's a pretty big luck factor on how fast you find the one with the correct word. This test tells you as much about how good of a guesser you are as anything. The third test also has a big random element. You have a little blue circle you steer with your stylus. You'll have a bunch of red and blue stars of different sizes moving randomly around the screen. You have to avoid touching the red stars while collecting as many blue stars as possible. Yes, there's some control skills, but again, there's too much of a random component to make this a truly objective test.

Once you've completed each of these three tests, you rotate the DS and do them all again with your other hand. If you get within 85 percent accuracy between each hand on all three of the tests, the game considers you to be totally ambidextrous (and the little hand does a happy dance). Note: The information from this area is not saved. It's just a quick comparison test.

Go on to Exercises, and you'll find that Left Brain Right Brain has four save slots, so in theory, up to four members of your family can share this cartridge to improve their off-hands. Within this section you'll see options for left hand (or right hand — if you're left dominant), Balance, L vs. R and Data.

In the hand section, there are five different levels. Within each level, there are three different challenges that let you compare your handedness. At higher levels, the challenges get tougher. In theory, your goal is to practice the exercises enough so that you get over 85 percent rating of ambidexterity on all five levels. Just for your reading enjoyment, here are the games exercises you'll find.

Level 1 has Touch the Green Square, Touch 'Em All and Surprise. Level 2 has Feel the Music, Pop the Balloons and Hit the Monsters (which is a lot like whack a mole without the moles). Level 3 has Connect the Dots, Scratch Away and Save the World (basically various sized "meteors" are hurtling toward the earth and you use the stylus to throw them back for as long as you can). Level 4 has Open the Safe, Gather the Stars and Roll on Down. I had some trouble with Open the Safe.

The instructions weren't entirely clear, and sometimes the little spinner thing would not move for me no matter what I tried. Since the DS in general is in good working order, I have to wonder if it wasn't some kind of game glitch. Finally, level 5 has Write the Letter (you print the letter it specifies within a box), Trace the Shape (actually fairly challenging) and Navigate the Maze. As you click through things, the little hand offers encouragement or says things like, "Won't you at least try level 4 today?" He "says" things in a little thought bubble. There is some music but nothing verbal in the game.

The balance section is basically a repeat of the ambidexterity evaluation you did earlier. Happily, you do have three different games to try. Surprise is first. This game has a cute little critter hidden behind a silver "wall." You tap the wall with the stylus to break away the bricks (only six per wall) to reveal the critter. You get to hit the monsters next. Along with tapping the little monsters, don't forget to smack the little plane that flies overhead. Finally, you're back to Write the Letter. I'm not sure how tight its parameters are, but it takes some pretty sloppy letters, as long as they're within the box.

The L vs. R is one basic game. There's a maze that you steer a little ball through. You go first with your dominant hand. When you race with your off-hand, you'll see a little shadow of your primary hand moving through the maze so you're kind of racing side by side.

The data section gives you the results from the levels in the hand section. You can view the data as a bar graph, and there's a line to show you the 85 percent mark. You also have an option to update data, which is basically giving you the chance to pick any game at any level and try to best your previous high score for your main hand. If you want to just play the minigames without having to do the off-hand options, this is where you need to go. Next to each level is a little hand with an expression on its "face" to tell you how well you did on that level. I have a big smile on level 1 down to x's for eyes on level 5.

The download mode lets you compete against other players to prove who is more ambidextrous (somehow I can only picture this as being a fun multiplayer game if a lot of drinking was involved, but that's me), or you can share a game with another person.

You don't really have a lot to do in the Options area. You have some controls for when you rotate the DS (or leave it where you left off). You can erase any saved game data. You can look at the credits.

I applaud your persistence if you've made it to this point of the review. While some of the minigames seem to be a fair test of how you use your main and off-hand, some have too much of a random element. I know I keep saying minigames. Most of them are really more "test" than "game." I think the workings of the mind are so complex that a series of pencil games are not going to appreciably strengthen your left or right brain. As far as increasing logic or creativity, everything I've read (and I do read a fair amount in this area — my daughter has autism, and I'm quite interested in the latest brain research that comes out) is an oversimplification to ascribe either trait to just one side of your brain.

If you think it would be cool to use your DS to improve the fine motor skill of your off-hand, go for it. Keep in mind that there are any numbers of low-tech options that you could use for the same thing. I would not buy this is a game since it really isn't a game. It's more a series of tests. For what this does, it's a little pricey; I would definitely not pay full price in any case.