If only I had the chance to use an iPhone throughout my life… helping me through both standardized testing and relationships from the third grade through high school. Maybe my nostalgia has arisen with my recent arithmetic practice thanks to Razor Reef Brain Addiction.

Now that my early addition troubles are over, as are my days of studying into the night (and visa versa), I didn’t think that this app would appeal to me. I was wrong.

Razor Reef has created this brain workout app that equally challenges kids and adults by asking the player to add numbers and choose the answer from three listed at the bottom of the screen within a specific time limit. As you progress into higher levels, the time limit decreases and the amount of numbers increase. I wish every aspect of life had such an easy structure.

So simple and yet so demanding, the adrenaline rush made the end reward worth it… this all starting to sound like past relationships of mine.

The four difficulty settings (Kids, Easy, Hard, and Expert) were fairly spaced apart in their challenges and while I was able to breeze through the Kids setting into the higher levels, eventually I did falter. After a number of tries, I found myself in expert mode only able to complete a handful of levels (wow, did the developers base this off of my social development or what? Fine with the kids stuff, but as soon as you get more advanced you won’t last long). EDITOR’S NOTE: David, you’ve been in a relationship for four years, what are you talking about?

Right, Sorry. Each level is composed of a number of equations, again all addition, and all following the same structure. The app allows you to miss the answer twice. After each miss you cannot give the right answer, but just move on with a strike against you, then you are given a final chance (nobody’s heartless afterall). By the time you get to expert level 4 or higher, the vast majority of the time you lose because you run out of time (and then she moves on) and then it’s game over. The only way for you to really understand the difficulty is by trying it yourself (thanks Dad).

My only gripe with the app is that you can’t pause it (as is life). I know that in the midst of gameplay this would totally defeat the purpose if you could see the numbers. I suggest a pause feature that blocks all of the numbers, because I’m really tired of getting a strike against me while trying to play the game and have a conversation with my girlfriend, all the while without control over stopping either of them.

Razor Reef Brain Addiction leverages you against yourself, which is perfect for learning at one’s own pace. Now if I can only find a way to bridge it with my interactions with others…