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Spatial thinking

Holding a map in your head.

Metroid gives you no map at the start. You build one in your head: that door you could not open, the ledge too high to reach, the corridor that loops back. By the end you can walk the whole planet with your eyes shut.

Tetris is the same skill at speed: turning a shape in your mind before you turn it on screen.

Train it on purpose

  1. Play a maze game without the map screen for twenty minutes. Draw it on paper afterwards and check.
  2. In Tetris, call where the piece goes before it lands in view of the stack.
  3. Navigate somewhere real without your phone this week. It is the same muscle.

Off the couch

Packing the car boot, flat-pack furniture, reading a floor plan before you sign a lease, finding your way back to the car after a gig. People who can picture space are the ones others follow when everyone is lost, and being the one who knows the way is a quiet kind of cool.

Games that train it

Axelay coverAxelay
The vertical stages curve the ground away like a drum, a Mode 7 trick that takes a moment to read. You learn to judge distance on a bent screen.Bionic Commando coverBionic Commando
You can't jump. Every gap and climb is solved with an arm that fires straight up, straight ahead or at 45 degrees. You read each room as angles and anchor points.Blaster Master coverBlaster Master
Every new ability for Sophia, hover, swim, climb walls, opens areas you drove past earlier. The eight levels form one connected underworld you criss-cross.Bubble Bobble coverBubble Bobble
Bubbles float, so you ride them up to ledges you can't jump to. Fall through the floor and you drop back in from the top. The screen wraps, and you learn to use it.Clu Clu Land coverClu Clu Land
Bubbles can't just turn. You grab a turning post and swing around it, so once you think in posts instead of corners each maze becomes a route puzzle at speed.Demon's Crest coverDemon's Crest
Fire, wall clinging, hovering, then gargoyle forms for ground, air and water. The map fills with places you now know you can reach.Dragon Quest VI: Maboroshi no Daichi coverDragon Quest VI: Maboroshi no Daichi
There's the real world and the Dream World, and the game makes you work out how the two maps connect. Critics reckon it's easy to lose track of where to go next.Dragon Warrior coverDragon Warrior
From the first throne room you can see the Dragonlord's castle across the water. Five towns and five dungeons: a world small enough to hold in your head.Faxanadu coverFaxanadu
The journey climbs the World Tree: the roots, inside the trunk, the branches, then the Dwarves' fortress. You're always going up, and always further from home.Friday the 13th coverFriday the 13th
The woods and caves are built to disorient and the paths repeat. When the alarm goes, you need to know where that cabin is, fast.Goof Troop coverGoof Troop
Rooms clear by sliding blocks, ringing bells, lighting candles and swinging across gaps with a grappling hook. Push one block wrong and you're stuck.Kid Icarus coverKid Icarus
Each world ends in a fortress, a maze of fixed rooms, where you can buy a map sheet, pencil and torch to find the boss. The climbing stages wrap from one side of the screen to the other.Kirby's Dream Course coverKirby's Dream Course
Working out a shot that caroms off a wall, flattens two enemies and leaves the last one where the hole will be easy is a geometry puzzle at an angle.Little Nemo: The Dream Master coverLittle Nemo: The Dream Master
Levels are wider and taller than they look, with keys scattered all through them. You only find out how many you needed at the door.Mega Man 5 coverMega Man 5
Gravity Man's stage flips you onto the ceiling. Suddenly up is down and every jump needs rethinking.Mega Man X2 coverMega Man X2
The new leg armour lets you dash in mid-air, which changes how you read every gap.Metroid coverMetroid
There's no in-game map and many rooms look alike. You hold Zebes in your head, or you get lost.Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos coverNinja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos
The shadow clones copy every move Ryu makes, so a well-placed pair turns fights into small puzzles of where to stand.Pilotwings coverPilotwings
The hang glider rides thermals and the skydive drifts in the wind. You're judging height and distance in a world that looks like a map on a table.Snake Rattle 'n' Roll coverSnake Rattle 'n' Roll
Judging depth on a diagonal isometric grid is hard, and jumps you think you've made drop you off the edge. It's a proper workout for your sense of space.Stunt Race FX coverStunt Race FX
Every course is built from 3D shapes, with bumps, overpasses and billboards. Reading a polygon road is a real skill.Super Bomberman 2 coverSuper Bomberman 2
A grid, a bomb and a friend standing too close. Every round you're reading the blast lines and escape routes.Super Bomberman 4 coverSuper Bomberman 4
You can kick, punch, pick up and throw bombs, and beaten enemies leave eggs you can ride. The grid gets busy fast.Super Bomberman coverSuper Bomberman
The cross of flame clears walls, catches rivals and sets off other bombs in a chain. Reading the grid is the whole game.Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island coverSuper Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
Yoshi's eggs bounce off walls, so half the targets get reached by angles, not straight shots. You're doing geometry with a dinosaur.Super Metroid coverSuper Metroid
One huge connected map, and each power-up opens a path you already saw and couldn't take. You end up carrying the whole of Zebes in your head.Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project coverTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project
The angled view makes it hard to judge whether you're lined up with an enemy. Plenty of misses are about depth, not timing.Tetris 2 coverTetris 2
Shapes no ordinary tetromino could make, falling into a well you thought you understood.Tetris coverTetris
Seven shapes, one open column, and a next-piece box giving you one move of warning. You're turning pieces in your head before they hit the board.The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past coverThe Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Hyrule has a twin, the Dark World, and because the maps line up, a ledge you can't reach in one is a short walk in the other.The Legend of Zelda coverThe Legend of Zelda
One screen at a time and almost no help. Drawing your own map is half the game, and cracking a dungeon with no help feels earned.