You'd better do what he says.

If the Olympics has you dreaming of smashing records with split-second timing - only without all that unsightly sweating - those dreams can be achieved with your iPhone or iPod touch. Brain Challenge may look like it’s just a clone of Nintendo’s Brain Age or Big Brain Academy games (and, let’s face it, it is) but it’s still a good time in its own right.

Brain Challenge is supposed to help you use more than the “ten percent” of the brain most of us get by with. We don’t know about that, but Brain Challenge definitely has the basics of brain training games down cold: you perform various feats of mental agility - mathematics, pattern matching, memory puzzles, etc. - under a time limit, and your score is graded and recorded as though anything remotely scientific is going on. Brain Challenge is basically a collection of mini games for the Mensa set, though some challenges are merely reflex tests that require quick taps and little brainpower.

The many activities are generally fun and challenging, and work well with touchscreen controls. New challenges are unlocked as you play, and with three levels of difficulty, replay value shouldn’t be an issue. Graphics are colorful and sharp, boasting impressive-looking 3D trainers who cheer you on or admonish you to do better, depending on your performance.

Brain Challenge has a few tricks of its own, too. A Stress Training mode tasks you with playing while an impatient boss or some onscreen trickery distracts you. We especially liked having to shake our iPhone or iPod touch to clear away dead leaves to see the screen clearly. Brain Challenge even includes non-training bonus games like Cubes, an accelerometer-controlled puzzler. There’s a lot to do here, and the whole package feels polished and well-done - a happy surprise considering the game’s derivative nature.

But one of the biggest challenges is an unintended one: getting used to all the loading screens. Expect progress bars to pop up between puzzles, before results are displayed, before your trainer opens his or her mouth...during just about every transition in the game. Load times are brief and don’t detract too much from the experience, but their sheer frequency annoys.