CD-Rom -- ''Dr. Brain Thinking Games: Iq Adventure'' -- ''Puzzle Madness''

"Dr. Brain Thinking Games: IQ Adventure" "Puzzle Madness" Knowledge Adventure http://www.knowledgeadventure.com, http://www.drbrain.com Windows $30 each

Is your "tweenager" spending too much time playing idiotic and violent computer games?

Well, even if you can't pry your child away from the keyboard, here are two attractive software programs that will test his or her brainpower rather than your patience.

Although there is a little cartoonish warring and an admittedly addictive character to "Dr. Brain Thinking Games," the emphasis is clearly on thinking in all its many splendid forms.

For example: Could you choose which of four designs accurately depicts an unfolded cube of patterns and symbols?

Could you do it in 20 seconds?

While an alarm horn is blasting?

And while a Quiz Bot is about to drain your brainpower, spoiling your quest for the parts of your crashed interdimensional transport machine?

This is standard fare in "Dr. Brain's IQ Adventure," and only one of the dozens of problems, puzzles and 3-D mazes your child has to solve to make it through this captivating game. One or multiple players, online or off, wend their way through four environments, facing tests that develop critical and analytical thinking, logic skills, memory and spatial-orientation abilities, just to mention a few.

Parents with long memories will recall that Dr. Brain used to sell under the Sierra label, where he provided hours of wholesome entertainment at the computer - assuming that's not an oxymoron. The "old" Dr. Brain tested language skills, logic power, musical memory and other "intelligences" in a format that was not only colorful, but also mindful of social values such as cultural and racial diversity.

The new Dr. Brain is on a new label, and has changed substantially. The fictional character himself is a lot younger, more cool and more handsome, and there is a little more emphasis on fighting and combat, but the programming has not lost its high standards for artwork and originality. Regrettably, the social-awareness elements of the old Dr. Brain are relegated to history.

Of the two new Dr. Brain titles, my 13-year-old likes the "IQ Adventure" better than "Puzzle Madness." The former has an online capability the other lacks, and has a more varied and challenging series of adventures to play out.

Both games put a high premium on developing strategy, but the IQ Adventure tosses in a particularly nice twist each time the player scraps a mission and tries again.

When taking the player back to his or her previous spot on the playing field (it's actually a jungle, or a cave, or a wasteland), it also turns the player's 3-D perspective in another direction, forcing the young explorer to reorient himself in the maze.

Not that "Puzzle Madness" isn't fun, too. How many kids' games let their operators fly a blimp or help stamp out computer viruses in the quest to defeat Dr. Brain's evil clone?

As for levels of difficulty, both games hold their appeal for older players and even for parents, despite their limited brainpower.