BrainBashers
http://www.brainbashers.com/
Grade: B+

Date reviewed: 8/13/04

There are lots of fun ways to waste your time on BrainBashers.com, from random silly activities like "Do Not Click This Button" to visual illusions to a wide variety of Flash and Shockwave games like "Bridges" and "Slime Volleyball." There's a monthly Family Feud-type contest where users guess the most common answers to questions such as "Name a famous wizard" and "Name a verb which begins with the letter 'R'." But, of course, we're most interested in puzzles around here, and this site has a lot of those as well.

Kevin Stone, who runs the site, has come up with some interesting puzzles. "BrainTrackers" are 9-letter grids, from which you have to form words; letters do not have to connect but the central letter must be used. "BrainBats" are a combination of classic and original puzzles where strange letter formations represent common words and phrases. Other than these two categories, there's not much method to Stone's puzzle madness; logic puzzles, word puzzles, and "Gotcha" trick puzzles are all mixed in together. You can sort the puzzles by difficulty, but otherwise it can be hard to find a particular type of puzzle.

Unlike the games, the puzzles on this site are not interactive; they're basically print and play. One nice feature BrainBashers provides is the "Puzzle Pot," which allows you to search through the puzzles, click on ones you like, and then print them all out at once.