Product Description

Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training: "How Old Is Your Brain?" is the latest Japanese phenomenon on Nintendo DS - and now it's hitting Europe! If you're bored of playing games that don't stretch your brain cells and you'd like to give your grey matter an extensive workout, pick up this program. The tests have been devised in cooperation with Dr. Kawashima himself, a renowned neuroscientist. With Brain Training you can train both your mental awareness and your memory. Hold the DS vertically, like a book, and write your answers with the stylus on the touch screen. The exercises are quick challenges that help stimulate your brain. There's a combination of arithmetic, reading and memory tests, and the program calculates your score in the form of a 'brain age' by assessing the speed and accuracy by which you perform these simple tasks. The title has sold over 1.4 million copies in Japan and is hugely popular with young and old alike. And that's hardly surprising - because playing regularly for just a few minutes a day has been found to stimulate parts of the brain related to thinking, creativity and concentration. So if you want to tone your intellectual muscle, Brain Training is a fine way to get started!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #99 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Nintendo
• Model: 45496737122
• Published on: 2006-04
• Released on: 2006-06-09
• Rating: To Be Announced
• ESRB Rating: Everyone
• Platform: Nintendo DS
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .62" h x 4.95" w x 5.70" l, .25 pounds

Features

• Dr Kawashima's Brain Training for Nintendo DS is a fun, rewarding form of entertainment everyone can enjoy, as it helps players flex their mental muscles.
• NINTENDO Dr Kawashima's Brain Training DS Simulation DS
• DS Simulation

Customer Reviews

Surprisingly entertaining
I must admit, having heard about Brain Age (the US title of Brain Training) some time ago, I wasn't immediately interested. It seemed to me to be nothing more than a 'mini-game'; something frivolous and not to be taken seriously, all the more so when you notice it is priced at a lower point than other DS games.

However, suspending disbelief I purchased a copy to play with on my new DS Lite and was stunned at how good it is. Firstly, you must have your 'Brain Age' calculated, which involves completing a Stroop Test -- that is, coloured words appear and you must speak their colour into the microphone. Sounds easy? You'd think so, but it really isn't. When the word "Red" written in blue comes up, you have to say "blue". Surprisingly tricky. The voice recognition works almost-perfectly, slightly hiccupping on the word 'blue', but working very well other than that.

After that, you must perform small daily tasks that constitute your 'brain training'; tasks such as Calculations x 20 in which a series of small mental arithmetic puzzles appear on screen and you must work them out and write the answer on the touch-screen, which is then transcribed for you. Again, quite boring-sounding, but doing it against the clock -- and against your previous record -- is more fun than you might think. And the handwriting recognition works a charm too.

Other functions include the built-in Sudoku, not particularly well-integrated with the 'brain age' daily training (it forms more a separate add-on game) but still very worthwhile nevertheless. I found it far easier to use than doing a sudoku on paper, not least because you can easily write in miniature 'suggestions' in the corners of blank squares and delete them later on.

All-in-all, this is an excellent game to add to anyone's DS. It's charming, easy to pick up; you can play it with friends or family (it can link up with up to sixteen other DS units with just one game card) or just do a sudoku on your own. And -- more amazing than any of these things -- it makes maths fun! Scary stuff.

Doesn't recognise verbal answers ...
... most of the time.

It is, however, great fun. You start to compete against yourself to see if you can better your previous scores.

The multi player game choice is a little poor, but the solo play is great fun. The Doctors, tips can be a little long winded and I tend to find myself hitting the "next" button a lot.

It also contains a lot of sudoku puzzles - I'd never tried these before but they're actually quite addictive.

Addictive, accessible and great value
A very addictive experience and one that anybody who can read and count will enjoy. It's less unique now then it was a year ago because of the glut of similar titles inspired by it's success. But the original Brain Training still stands tall as one of the best games on the market today.
Through short daily activities and personal performance statistics Brain Training soon has you hooked. As you improve you unlock new games which give more variety to play.
The game really comes alive with 2 or more players. There's no wifi multiplayer, but players have their own files in the game which automatically compares performance stats and pictures. Perfect for a competitive family!
My only criticism is that you can get bored with the games after a month or so. But having said that, most full price games I've bought have only hooked me for about a month and loose a bit of sparkle after that so at the budget price that Brain Training retails for you can't really loose.
This is one of the only games that has instantly grabbed everyone I've have ever shown it to, right across the age range. Every family with a DS in the house should get a copy and this game is one of the reasons to own a DS in the first place.