Forgotten DSi Educational Platformer
 

When I was in middle school my science class was told we were going to be part of a project where we were going to each receive a brand new DSi XL and a never-before-seen game that would teach us and reinforce to us the chemical composition of certain molecules like glucose and such. The idea was to test whether our class, having played the game, would perform better on exams involving remembering chemical compounds and structures than a class that was taught them normally.

This was the early-2010's, likely between 2011-2013. It was a 2D platformer (from what I can remember) and you played as a robot, I think, who, while navigating the levels, would occasionally have to build certain molecules using elements on the bottom screen and putting them into the shapes of the molecules.

I remember the experiment being designed to last at least a month but, by the end of the first week, several students in my class were reporting they could no longer access the game. The game cartridge wasn't a normal DS cartridge, but more like a generic one with a small removable memory card. Apparently, if the small memory card was removed (even if it was later put back in), or a software update for the system was done, the game was no longer playable.

I seem to remember by the end of the month nearly everyone in the class had lost access to the game, and I believe the experiment was called off since not enough of us had played the game recently enough for the data to be what the experimenters were looking for. At the end of the month we had to give back the DSi XL, its charger, and the game, and that was the last I ever heard of it.

Outside of that I really don't remember much about the game other than it involved building molecules on the bottom screen and I very much enjoyed it until I, too, was no longer able to access the game.

If someone else out there remembers the game or maybe was even part of the experiment as well I hope you see this. I've thought about the game every once in a while and I'd like to learn more about it if any information still exists on it.