Mensa Academy app review for iPhone, iPa, iPod and Android. Mensa Academy is currently $4.99 in the App store. The Mensa Academy App is created by Square Enix games, who also made the famous Final Fantasy series.
Is the Mensa Academy App worth it? it is very expensive for a game. Mensa Academy has previously been available for the Nintendo 3DS and other platforms. It’s not a new game, just converted from the other versions available. It claims in the description to have more than 1000 questions and I will write a Mensa Academy guide here on Nerdr if I have time later this week.
Graphics. The graphics in Mensa Academy are nice and cartoony. Not too childish, but not as serious as other games.
Sound. Sound in Mensa Academy is nice. Good music and sound effects throughout the game. There is voice sound effects from the lady on the menu. It’s a nice touch and adds to the quality of the Mensa app.
Puzzles. A new question type is introduced nearly every level. With 100 levels (20 in each of 5 categories). I estimate Mensa Academy has 100 question types. In the Mensa Academy game description on the App store it says it has 1000’s of questions. Many of these are just randomly generated. In truth, their are about 100 question types. Maybe less ,but the puzzles are challenging.
I have seen and taken official Mensa tests (I am a member). The puzzles here in Mensa Academy are not of the type you will find in an official Mensa test exactly. They are more cartoony and randomly generated than the real thing. They do however cover the same categories as real Mensa tests.
Gameplay. Some of the puzzles and questions in Mensa Academy are average. Some questions are repeated too often. The review claims Mensa Academy app contains over 1000 questions. The early questions are basically a reaction test, with questions like “Hit all the numbers that are a multiple of 11”. I hope it gets better!
From the Mensa Academy main menu you get three options once you hit start. Play, Coach and Test brain training options. In these you then see:
- Language puzzles.
- Numeracy Puzzles.
- Logic Puzzles.
- Visual Puzzles.
- Memory Puzzles.
Value. Mensa Academy costs $4.99. This is a very expensive app compared to the free and $0.99 apps that are out there. If you really like question and quiz games then I would suggest you buy it, but because of the price I can only half recommend it. 3/5. Do not buy Mensa Academy if you have an older iPad 1 or older iDevice because there are many reports of crashing in the comments section on the App store.
Conclusion. If you don’t mind spending $4.99 on a puzzle app then I would recommend buying this. It’s good, but not amazingly great. It might be worth waiting for a price drop sale later. 3/5 from me at the expensive price, 5/5 if you find Mensa Academy for $0.99! Nerdr.com.
What do you think? Leave a comment below for others to see your view.
Update after 1 hour of play of the Mensa Academy App. I have now completed about 5 challenges on each of the 5 categories of Mensa Academy. It is definitely overpriced at $4.99! It does have some polish in graphics and style, so I say $0.99 would be too cheap, but the most I would pay for Mensa Academy is $2.99.
The puzzle types in Mensa Academy do get hard, so it’s good if you like a challenge. Mensa Academy is not suitable for small children because of the difficult of puzzles. At level 2 (out of 20 levels) on the Numeracy they need to know 3/11 is the same as 12/44 for example. Mensa Academy gets hard quickly and requires a reasonable level of education. Still there are puzzles in the app that children will like, like the animal ordering puzzle. The graphics in Mensa Academy are also made to appeal to children.