Memory declines with aging are common and can be frustrating. While some changes may be a natural part of aging, this doesn’t make them inevitable. Instead, seniors can work to improve their brain power. Memory game apps for seniors are one way to do this.
These apps follow the ‘use it or lose it’ mentality – suggesting that if people challenge their brains regularly, declines in cognition and memory should be much less likely.
Some research supports this idea too, suggesting that long-term use of brain training can improve cognition in a variety of areas.
Finding the Best Memory Game Apps for Seniors
While there are many ways to exercise the brain, memory game apps for seniors are especially powerful. They can be easily loaded onto a smartphone or a tablet, which makes them very portable.
There are also many to choose from. While some cost money, many others are free to use. And, the apps are often designed to keep people entertained and engaged. This makes them ideal indoor activities for seniors.
This post focuses on some of the best brain training and memory apps out there, including how they work and what you can expect.
We’re not just going to focus on the classic brain training apps either. Instead, we’ll talk about a variety of app styles.
Memory Apps
1. Train Your Brain – Memory Games
This app is one of multiple from the company Senior Games. They also have reasoning games and attention games for seniors, along with some familiar games like hangman.
The app looks bright and simplistic.
But, this isn’t all bad. The design makes it easy to see what you’re meant to be doing. This is perfect for seniors who are a little overwhelmed by technology.
There are 8 games to choose from:
- Pairs of Cards
- Risky Road
- Cooking Pizza
- Color Challenge
- Bright Squares
- Find the New
- Faces and Names
- Shopping List
Each game has a set of levels (normally around 30), which might contain a dozen or so individual challenges.
The main problem is that you need to go through the levels in order, starting at 1. This means that you’re beginning with some very simplistic games.
Cost
The app itself is free, but it is ad supported. So, you’ll sometimes need to watch a video or tap out of an ad before you can proceed.
If the ads are too annoying or confusing for the senior, you can pay to have them removed. Getting rid of the ads costs $4.19. That’s not a bad deal if you find the app enjoyable.
Personal Thoughts
The games on this app mightn’t be amazing, but they would appeal to the right audience. The app is free too and removing the ads isn’t that expensive.
The simplicity could be a good thing too. There are no complicated features to worry about, like stats and unlocking games.
Plus, unlike many other apps, seniors get to choose the game they want and simply play it. Many memory game apps for seniors (or other people) focus on daily mental workouts instead, which makes it harder for users to simply sit and play the games.
2. Simon Says
This app only offers one game – the classic Simon Says. With this game, colors and notes light up, and you need to repeat the sequence. The number of notes higher as you go.
There are multiple modes to choose from:
- Classic: Repeat the sequence that grows by one each round.
- Reverse: Replay the sequence in reverse.
- Chaos: The entire sequence is randomized each round.
- Single: Only the newest color added to the sequence plays back. You must still repeat the whole sequence.
- Opposite: You must replay the opposite buttons that you see.
- Two Player: Two alternating games of classic.
The classic version of the game is the one that most people will know, while the other versions provide extra cognitive challenges.
It’s also possible to change the sounds played and the colors.
Cost
This is another free ad-supported app. You can remove the ads for $2.59.
Personal Thoughts
If you like Simon Says, then the app could be appealing. It’s simple to use and the ads aren’t too intrusive.
You could also look for similar apps. There are many versions of this style to choose from.
3. Matching Games: Rememberly
The idea of this game is simple – you’re matching cards. There are 12 difficulty levels and a variety of images for the tiles. Cats, numbers, flags, and shapes are some of the options.
You can also choose between different versions of the game, including:
- Simple
- Time Challenge
- Limited Tries
- Remember All
- Campaign
Some of the options are only available for the paid version of the game, but the amount offered in the free game is still impressive.
Cost
This is one of the cheapest options out there. The app itself is free and you get a lot of functionality without paying any money.
It is, however, ad-supported and the ads can get annoying.
Removing them costs $1.59.
Personal Thoughts
Once again, there are many matching game apps. The ads on this one are a bit annoying, but the visual style is fantastic.
Honestly, it’s worth paying the small price to remove the ads and fully enjoy the app.
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Brain Training Apps
The apps we’ve looked at so far focus just on your memory.
There aren’t many of these, as apps tend to take a brain training approach. With these, some games are focused on memory, while others target different aspects of cognition.
This approach could be more powerful, as improving your cognition overall is likely to boost memory too.
4. Memory Games
This app can be a bit confusing at first, partly because you’re meant to unlock games as you go along.
You unlock some of them by playing through the Journey section and earning stars. Others can be purchased with coins that you earn in-game.
The style provides a sense of progression and something to work for, which can be appealing. But, earning the stars and coins needed to unlock games may involve playing ones that you’re not interested in.
The games themselves are appealing – and the app offers a daily workout and the ability to simply pick up games and play.
Despite the name, this app focuses on many aspects of cognition, not just memory.
Cost
The app itself is free. You can access all of the features without paying anything at all, but it takes time to unlock things and you need to put up with ads.
If you’re willing to spend a little, then there are a few options:
- Pro: $8.99. Gives you access to all games, removes ads, and provides 1,000 coins (which is the in-game currency that used mostly to unlock games)
- Unlock All Games: $4.69. This unlocks all the games for you, but does nothing about the ads.
- Remove Ads: $4.99. Removes all ads, but you still need to work on unlocking the games.
- Get 700 Coins: $1.29. Gives you 700 coins.
- Get 2,500 Coins: $3.89. Gives you 2,500 coins.
Personal Thoughts
The ads make this app a bit frustrating, as does the way that you unlock games. But, in fairness, you can pay a little money to remove both of those things, which makes the app more enjoyable to use.
Plus, the app is affordable. It’s much less expensive than the main brain training apps and the free version contains many more features.
5. Elevate
Elevate is one of the most well-known brain training apps out there. It currently offers more than 35 brain games, that work on areas like memory, focus, processing, comprehension, and math.
The app focuses on daily sessions where you complete multiple games. The games change from one day to the next, allowing you to test your brain in a variety of areas.
Key Features
Elevate boasts an impressive collection of more than 35 games, with adaptive difficulty and detailed metrics.
Elevate has two versions – free and paid.
The free version gives you a taste of Elevate.
- Unlimited duration
- Can only play 3 games per day
- Have access to simple metrics
- Can play 22 of the 35+ games
- Free users can only replay games from that day’s session
The full version provides more features, including:
- Access to all the games, along with the ability to play them outside of the daily sessions
- More detailed performance metrics
- 5 games in the daily session, instead of 3
Cost
The full version of Elevate costs $59.99 per year. There is a free 7-day trial, but users need to sign up to a subscription to access this. If you do so and fail to cancel the trial in time, you’ll get billed for the full yearly cost.
Personal Thoughts
The games from Elevate look good, are enjoyable, and are easy to play. It would be easy to get hooked into playing them every day.
However, there are some key problems, especially when we’re looking at memory game apps for seniors.
- First, the games cover a variety of topics. That’s great for general brain training, but not so good if you’re just interested in memory.
- The games won’t always suit your skill level or need. For example, the first day I ended up with three word-based games, one of which felt incredibly simplistic.
- The app costs $59.99 per year. This is incredibly expensive for an app.
- You only get a week to try out the full version. That’s not much time to decide whether you want to commit to a full year.
6. Luminosity
Luminosity is the second big player in the world of brain training apps.
Key Features
Luminosity provides more than 50 activities. It is available in multiple languages too, including English, Spanish, French, Japanese, and German. The activities cover familiar areas, like memory, speed, language, math, and problem-solving.
Once again, there are two versions of the app.
Limited
- You get a daily workout each day of 3 games
- Games can be replayed
- You can see basic stats from your performance
Premium
- Daily workouts personalized based on your scores
- Games adapt to the skill level of the player, so they’re always challenging
- More detailed performance tracking
- You can compare your performance to other users
- Access to insights about your performance
Cost
Luminosity has a paid plan and a free one too. The paid version costs $79.99/year or $14.99/month.
There’s a 14-day free trial, but once again, you need to sign up to the subscription to access this.
Personal Thoughts
The games for Luminosity are on the long side, but not incredibly so. They get challenging too, which is a good thing if you’re trying to train your brain.
Once again though, this app doesn’t focus exclusively on memory. It covers a variety of areas. Plus, you’re only getting to play 3 games per day, so you mightn’t even get memory apps some days.
The biggest problem, however, is the price. Most apps cost less than $10 and many are less than $5. Luminosity charges almost $15 a month or $80 a year – and you don’t even own the game.
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Other Types of Game
These next apps and games aren’t normally included on lists of memory game apps for seniors – because they’re not designed with memory in mind. Instead, these are games designed for entertainment.
But, the games may also help with memory.
The fact that they’re designed as games, not mental workouts, is helpful too. This can make them more enjoyable and interesting.
7. Farming Games
There are many of these games to choose from. Farmville 2: Country Escape and Farmville 2: Tropic Escape are examples of the style.
Games like this tend to start out slowly and get more complicated as you go. Before too long, there are many things to manage. In the case of the Farmville games, you’re looking at tasks like:
- Growing and harvesting crops
- Feeding animals and collecting resources from them
- Sending characters on adventures to collect items
- Crafting items using what you have collected
- Selling crafted items
- Participating in competitions
- Interacting with other plays through co-op features
- Playing through a storyline, completing missions and goals along the way
- Seasonal and limited-time competitions that have their own distinct mechanics and features
It takes a surprising amount of brain power to keep up with all of these areas. Players also need to remember where they were up to and what they were working on each time they log back in.
It’s easy to see how the game could help with memory. There’s so much to remember and keep track of. Plus, this is a game, so it can feel simple and fun.
Most games like this are free to play and use hardly any ads.
When there are ads, these are often optional. For example, you can choose to watch a video to get a bonus item or extra in-game currency.
However, most games have some type of in-game currency that makes everything easier and faster. This costs real money and can get expensive fast. It’s easy to get sucked into spending money on these games, so this is something to watch out for.
8. Simulation Games
Many simulation games have a strong strategy aspect to them too. Players need to remember, strategize, and plan to play the game well.
Plus, there are many different styles to choose from, including complex games and ones that are much simplier.
The Sims FreePlay is one example.
This is a large and pretty game, so it won’t work with all devices. But, it can be an enjoyable one. It focuses on quests and time management. While there are fewer things to worry about than with a farming game, there is still more than enough to keep senior users engaged.
Games like The Simpsons Tapped Out can be appealing too. These have a simpler visual style and will run well on more devices.
Once again, there are many different things to plan and manage at once, which can be relevant for memory, cognition, and entertainment.
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