BigBrainz Timez Attack RULES!

I originally became a computer programmer because I loved video games. About 500,000 lines of mostly business intelligence and database code later, I'm at peace with the fact that I'll never be a professional game programmer. But I still love a good video game.

Fast forward: I'm a dad now, and my 3rd-grade son is learning his multiplication tables. I'm pretty good at math, but I remember this being a struggle for me. Rumors of a secret weapon have been floating around my kid's school, and I finally got the scoop from one of the parents: Timez Attack.

Timez Attack looks and feels a lot like, well, Quake. No monsters being liquidated against the walls with a BFG-9000, though. The weapon here is your kid's mind: he or she blows away the baddies by answering multiplication questions correctly! As ghastly as it sounds, it works, and my kid is choosing to practice math as a result!

I, of course, had to give it a spin for myself. You'll be happy to know there is a way to test out of the lower levels-- but I found that the higher levels were surprisingly challenging. This isn't a walk in the park; you will be required to produce each math fact in about three seconds or forfeit the point. I fat-fingered an answer and crushed the monitor with my bare hands! (okay, I actually did not do that-- though I considered it!)

There are free, standard, and deluxe versions of the game. The free version is really quite fun! The upgraded versions add more environments so you aren't playing in the same dungeon every time. It's well worth a spin to see if it will work for your kid (or for you, for that matter!) Check it out here:

multiplication games from Big Brainz.