Xbox 360
Maths has never really encouraged much excitement in people. Compared to guns, violence and scantily clad women, basic maths just isn't up to job when it comes to keeping the attention deficit of modern gamers satisfied. Thus one might hope that Challenge Me: Maths Workout would be here to change all that and bring a whole new world of mathematical ecstasy to gamers everywhere. Unfortunately what Oxygen Games has produced is neither fun nor educational, but in fact the very incarnation of pain.
In an attempt to overload gamers with content, CMMW provides the eager consumer with a grand total of not just one, but two mini-games. First you have ‘Hidden Logic', a game where you guess the numbers on your own and others cards while they are face down in a manner entirely bereft of logic, more based around wild guesses rather than actual maths.
The other is excitingly titled ‘Formulate' where you are tasked with completing a formula using - yes, you've guessed it - cards! In all honesty I still have little clue of the gameplay behind this game. You can occasionally create a workable formula when you get the right cards - but only if you're very lucky. Usually you can't work with the numbers and the game just flashes the word ‘MISCALCULATION' at you like you actually care. This doesn't matter though as the computer player seems to be in the same boat you and can only shrug his shoulders at you quizzically. It quickly becomes a case of luck in order to succeed, though winning this game is akin to the game of life: it doesn't make any sense, you're left with that same feeling of self loathing and your mum is the only person likely to congratulate you.
Not only is the content skull-numbingly dull, but the game itself takes little time to explain the intricacies of controls. You are simply thrust into each scenario and asked how long you want it to last (sadly zero seconds is not an option here) then left to fend for yourself. The greatest indignity is in having to choose from a selection of clip art characters that literally have no effect on the game other than to remind you just how many real friends you don't have. For the record I tended to switch between the incontinent looking panda and the poor robot that looks like he's suffering from cholera.
This isn't so much as maths workout as it is a game of lucky cards in a manner completely void of challenge. The graphics are of little consolation and the soundtrack is a mute-worthy Wii Sports symphony that isn't exactly pleasing to the aural sensors.
Challenge Me is a false pretence, being neither based around traditional mathematics or indeed being any sort of true ‘challenge' in itself (unless you count luck as such a feat). There is little in the way of credit: it's not fun, educational and has little to offer the consumer. Perhaps Oxygen Interactive should do their own maths based on sales and rethink their strategy, because there certainly isn't anything else to learn from this title.