Word Up (Brainstorm Series) for Nintendo DS: Modes, Release and Rating

Brainstorm Series: Word Up is a word puzzle collection for the Nintendo DS, released in 2011 by Storm City. Wikipedia’s Nintendo DS list dates its North American release to 29 June 2011.

Overview

The ESRB, which rated it E for Everyone, describes the game as a set of puzzle games in which players create words out of lettered tiles. Its listing also names word searches, Hangman and timed challenges among the activities.

RegVault gives more detail on the contents. It lists WordBlast, Pickletter and updated versions of Hangman and Wordfinder, and says the game uses a library of more than 100,000 words. A challenge mode is described as testing both the speed and the accuracy of the player’s vocabulary.

RegVault files the game under the genre labels Education and Puzzle, and describes it as a single collection of classic word-based games rather than one long campaign. The ESRB entry lists no content descriptors and no interactive elements, so the E rating carries no extra warnings about online play or user-generated content. None of the sources reviewed spell out the stylus or button controls, or the rules of the individual modes, so those details are left out here.

Series context

Brainstorm Series is the label printed in the full title, and the ESRB database shows that other puzzle releases from the same company carry it. The ESRB lists Brain Storm Series: Treasure Chase, a Nintendo DS game rated E in which the player shifts blocks around a grid to steer treasure chests to exits, with a limited number of moves per level and a score based on points and speed. It also lists Brainstorm Series: Word Wizard 3D, a Nintendo 3DS collection of word games such as unscrambling letters and finding hidden words against the clock, again rated E. Both entries name Storm City Entertainment, and the ESRB spells the first title with a space in “Brain Storm”.

No plot is described anywhere, as the game is a plain collection of word puzzles.

Reception

No professional review or aggregate score turned up for this title in the sources checked.

Do not confuse it with 3, 2, 1… WordsUp!, a separate DSiWare game by EnjoyUp reviewed by Nintendo Life and Nintendo World Report.

Release and credits

Wikipedia’s list of Nintendo DS games names Storm City Games as both developer and publisher and gives 29 June 2011 for North America. RegVault names Visual Impact as developer and Storm City Games as publisher, with 2011 as the year and no region given. The ESRB lists the company as Storm City Entertainment.

Can you still play it?

DS cartridges run on the Nintendo DS, DS Lite and DSi, and the Nintendo 3DS family plays them in DS mode. The Wii U and Switch cannot read DS cards. Standard DS cartridges are not region-locked, and the sources checked describe this title as a cartridge release. Nintendo discontinued the 3DS family on 16 September 2020.