The Time Warp of Dr. Brain is the fourth installment of the educational (genre) series, Dr. Brain by Sierra Entertainment.
Theme
The beginning scene of the game comically reveals the storyline behind solving the puzzles. Dr. Brain had used a "transportation device" to travel back in time by one week, to find his lost car keys. In an accident he travelled to an alternate dimension. The only way out of this strange area is to solve all the puzzles successfully. The theme of the game is time travel, therefore most of the games are loosely based on space and time.
Difficulty
Like the previous titles, The Timewarp of Dr. Brain is a simple point-and-click. There are three difficulty levels: novice, expert and genius. Each level has a set of 20 sub-games.
Gameplay
Like its predecessors, the objective of the game is to successfully complete a set of 10 puzzles. Throughout the game, Dr. Brain poses as an advisor to the player, constantly passing witty comments and suggestions. A total of approximately 12000 points is needed to finish one of the games, with a win in 'novice', 'expert', and 'genius' levels give 250, 1000, and 2250 points respectively.
Puzzles
Most of the puzzles require logical thinking and planning, while others require dexterity, and some require a mixture of the two. The puzzles include the following:
- Primordial Soup - Dr. Brain takes the form of a green single-celled organism, and his aim is to defeat the yellow cells. There are many objects in the primordial soup to aid or hinder both cells, such as catalysts for mitosis and viral spores. The game is basic real-time strategy and takes place in 990,000,000 BC.
- Spelunking - Dr. Brain takes the form of a prehistoric lungfish, which must be guided through an underwater cavern. The fish requires oxygen bubbles to make it through the caverns, or it will drown. The puzzle takes place in 200,000,000 BC.
- Lizards and Eggs - Dr. Brain is a mother lizard attempting to keep her eggs warm by placing them on geologic hot spots. It takes place in 60,000,000 BC.
- Beaver Dam - Dr. Brain is a beaver, attempting to build a dam across the river with the sticks that float downstream while maneuvering logs away that can potentially damage the dam. It takes place in 2,000,000 BC.
- Caveman Rock - Dr. Brain is a bass guitarist caveman, with a full rock band. In this game, one listens to a recording of a song, and attempts to assemble it with sound bytes of each player's parts. It takes place in 1,000,000 BC.
- Monkey-See-Monkey-Do - Dr. Brain attempts to defeat a monkey by creating as many three- to five-letter words as possible. The Genius and Expert levels require knowledge of American Sign Language in order to be completed. The game takes place in 10,000 BC.
- Alchemy - Using crude equations, one must take one chemical and turn it into another chemical. The game takes place in 1400 AD.
- Gridlock - Dr. Brain and several other cars must navigate through a city on the planet Mars, attempting to get to their destinations without crashing into opposing traffic or duplicating paths. This is done by programming intersections. The game takes place in 5,000 AD.
- Spaceshop - Dr. Brain must duplicate a 3-D blueprint of a space station. The game takes place in 10,000 AD.
- Brainwaves - Dr. Brain is a holographic brain which dispenses clues to the player in order to solve logic puzzles. Other brains provide additional input. The game takes place in 100,000 AD.
Beginning and end of the game
Upon starting the game a mini-game appears, similar to the video-game Space Invaders. The player must hit the appropriate spaceship [new game/restore/quit] to play.
After completing all 10 puzzles, Dr. Brain is seen passing the starting screen in his time travelling machine, and returning home through a space-time rift.