3D Math - Ultra

Finally, for the first time in Steam, someone made an actual math game (not just some number crunching/guessing bs I've seen previously, falsely advertised as something useful for the brain).
This app can actually help you refresh your algebra and calculus "instincts". Although memorizing formulas might be demoralizing (because you'll forget most of the formulas), it'll still help when you'll work with more area-specific formulas and deriving your own expressions for a specific task.

Although I mostly enjoyed the formulas part, there's also plenty of fun little number crunching, memorizing, and logical mini-games.
And I was very surprised to see that the game is in real 3D. I've thought it's just marketing.

It's a good game, but have:
1) soo many glitches and bugs, mostly in the layout of questions (for me always have a glitch in formulas' test);
2) four months that nothing are posted (looks like the game is dead), which is a shame because some resources are missing;
3) the communication of updates are reaally bad: the developer don't announces any social media like twitter or facebook, only have the site, email and discord group [which is too much simple, dont have any moderator or announcement of updates].
Conclusion: I liked the initiative and I understand the game have a small community, but there are a lot of free mobile games (with the same proposal) that is much better. If this game have the updates that at least completes it, I would recommend.

Better than expected and more enjoyable after longer play. I'll write what I personally liked about it and compare it to other games. Since there seems to be no other game like this on Steam, I'll compare it to something like Lumosity and similar games.

The game would have been worth a higher price. It makes the math, logic, and other training games more interesting than normal. Training arithmetic probably doesn't sound like a game, but it's kind of nice because you start to feel it's a challenge and have a motivation to out do yourself. Plus, unlike other games, the skill is transferable outside of the game.

Yeah, most people do not need to do it because they can do it on a phone calculator, but it's useful for a number of fields. Plus I think the general person doesn't like the feeling of not being able to personally get some larger multiplication. If you're a researcher, you'll often have need for competence there, and I think in things like Physics and engineering it will also have uses when you don't have access to a calculator. As a researcher sometimes I'd be wearing gloves and stuck in some room and then an unexpected need to do something arithmetic that most people screw up happened often enough. I also remember the Manga "Dragon Zakura" where they drilled the heck of of similar arithmetic because it was essential to do very fast in order to have enough time for an exam. Being able to do it quick and comfortably gives you more options, so, to me, it would be shortsighted to say it's useless because of calculators.

The option to study formulas is probably useful as a studying tool, but I didn't really have need to study them any more so neglected it.

I mostly returned to play the challenge mode, playing maybe 10-20 min a day 3-4 times per week (btw, ignore my hours played - I often leave games on idle while using another computer or I forget to close the game). I've been steadily improving and going to higher levels, and there is quite a way to go (on level 22 of about 150). I expect it will be immensely difficult later on. Part of the improvement is familiarity, but it also feels like my mind became more clean and organized when doing this. I particularly benefited from doing the larger multiplication challenges, like having to do a bunch of 94x76 type of equations. At first, I'd make mistakes from mis-remembering the exact number from previous steps, and I'd also get tired after solving a few, but as of recently I can crank them out.

In the challenge games with numbers, when you're on a certain level they often go through batches of numbers that come up multiple times. You could actually probably guess the number from knowing the general estimate and that a certain value came up before, sometimes, but thinking like that would be slower than getting the answer so it doesn't matter. The changed numbers and usually increased difficulty keeps it fresh. As levels went on some new games came up, involving logic and pattern recognition. These became interesting as they became a little more challenging because you needed to make your own rules and system for solving something coming from no where. These were refreshing challenges and might be transferable skills themselves.

The thing I like about these games is challenging yourself, while having a nice visual format that makes it easier to get into. This game also has a nice little surrounding environment. Funny 3D characters and an interesting room, and mostly pleasant background noises and music. I completely ignored these at first but by now they've grown on me. Sometimes the girl character asks you some random questions (and encourages you). I kind of like the idea of getting quizzed and having different subjects, but I got every question wrong. Usually they are science-related trivia and require some knowledge not in the game. This feature could be pretty cool if there was a relation to knowledge from the game, like if the expanded version (which may never come) had some science teaching related to this. I think the game could include some other subjects and be even better.

I think there are some brain challenges on Steam but nothing quite like this, AFAIK. In the past I have played Lumosity a fair bit (web/phone based brain training service), and think this is better in the areas where it is similar. It is less repetitive and you don't quickly master it. None of the Lumosity games involving math really challenge you with math, it's mostly about speed for short bursts, IMO. This game also has longer game times available and additional options besides short repetitive games. I say this as someone who enjoyed Lumosity. On that note, this game also has the dual-n-back game, which Lumosity does not. And as indicated earlier, I liked the aesthetics and comfortable feeling of this game's environment, whereas Lumosity basically has none.

Let me point out that Lumosity has millions of users and sells paid monthly access. I say this because the developers posted that there appeared to be little interest for this type of game. I'd say given how huge Lumosity is that there definitely is a market, but they just haven't been reached and maybe there are less people interested in this game at it's current developmental stage. Lumosity can also reach people more easily on the web and phone, and it has zero time for getting into trying a game (you don't need to get through levels or have much practice besides playing a 45-second game a few times). But I think this came could be developed to overcome that. I've paid for Lumosity for a year or so before and would be more than willing to do so for this game instead, so I really hope that somehow a future game gets made.