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| Brain Age Review by Jonathan Trevisani by Jonathan Trevisani Nintendo's flagship title for their Touch Generations campaign is Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day. This game for the Nintendo DS represents the company's new focus on "expanding the gamers' market" and features a different type of game play. Brain Age can best be described as a puzzle game, but it involves various challenges specifically designed to exercise your brain. Brain Age is based around the research made by Dr. Ryuta Kawashima on brain stimulation. His research is brought to life as various exercises and puzzles are performed by players each day to keep their mind challenged and active. These exercises vary from simple math and reading challenges to memory and color tests. The exercises are fun to perform and challenge players to improve upon their scores. The entire perspective of the DS game is sideways as players hold the handheld like a book with the touch screen on the side that they write with. The game allows players to customize their experience with a left and right-handed profile. It is designed to be a casual game since it doesn't force players to go through endless challenges for hours on end. In fact, all of the exercises can be completed in about 10 to 15 minutes. Hence the "Minutes a Day" slogan. The game will record the results of each challenge the first time it is played that day. Players can go back and play the same puzzle however many times they wish, but the results are not kept. The brain ages range from 90 which is the worst to 20 which is the best possible score. The first thing that players are invited to do is take a general brain age test. This involves the Stroop Test, a word is displayed on the screen that players need to say the color of the word into the DS microphone. This seems pretty simple, but the word itself might be "Red" or "Yellow". Once it is performed a few times, it becomes second nature to call out the correct answer for the test. Once it is completed, a general brain age is given to the person; their brain may be in their "80s" for example. This general test is designed for a quick challenge for friends or relatives to try out the game. There is a more detailed test for players to get an exact age for their brain. Brain Age creates a player profile that will keep track of your progress while you play the game. At first, only three exercises are available to play but more are unlocked as you continue to play the game. Most of the challenges have the player write their answer on the touch screen so handwriting does become a bit of a factor as the game might not recognize the way the player writes a letter or number. The verbal exercises require players to speak into the microphone but the game sometimes doesn't recognize what the player is trying to say. It seems to have a hard time with the word "blue" but players will soon find the best way to say the word for proper recognition. Some of the math exercises include a head count challenge where players count the number of people entering and leaving a house. There is also a straightforward calculation test where players write answers to problems consisting of simple addition, subtraction, and multiplication. The hard mode for the calculation game includes division. There is a syllable count game and a reading aloud challenge for the language exercises. Memorization is involved with Low to High where players have 1 second to memorize the placement of numbers on a grid. The training exercises are meant to be played every day to keep up the brain stimulation and to lower your overall brain age. Once players feel up to the challenge, they can take a more detailed brain age test that includes three exercises. This might involve a word memory challenge where players have three minutes to memorize as many words as possible. Depending on how well players perform on the three tasks, a specific brain age is given such as "49". Players can only test their brain age once in a day. There are also little bonus items within the game as the pixilated version of Dr. Kawashima guides you through the exercises. Players might be asked what they had for dinner the previous night and then asked if they remember their answer a few days later. There is also a drawing component where players draw various objects from memory such as the Statue of Liberty or a dragon. These drawings are then compared with the other players and yield some interesting results and entertaining conversation. The included Soduku puzzles capture the latest puzzle craze with the numerical challenges giving the game an extra bit of fun. Overall, Brain Age is a fun, casual game that challenges players with daily tasks and stimulating mental exercise. The purpose of the game is to keep the mind active and entertain players while doing it. Aside from such frustrations as spotty speech and writing recognition, the game accomplishes it goal with its unique style and game play. Players should have a fun time checking their brain age and working up a mental sweat. write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Game News :: home page |