Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain? (DS) Review
For years and years mothers and fathers all around the world have told you that playing games won’t make you smart, that they are bad for you and you shouldn’t waste your time or money. Now the tables have turned, give your parents a go at Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain? (Henceforth referred to as Brain Training) and it’s a fair bet you’ll be fighting you parents to get your DS back. Maybe you shouldn’t have of traded in your original DS after all?
That’s not to say the game is just for older people or parents, Brain Training is a game anyone can pick up and play and put their brain to the test. It’s pretty safe to say that the game couldn’t be replicated on any other portable or console past and present. Brain Training uses all the features of the DS, the microphone, dual and touch screens all get a whirl. So how does the game do this? The game is the brain child of Dr Ryuta Kawashima, a famous Japanese neuroscientist who has developed the exercises in the game to activate the pre-frontal lobes of you brain. These quick exercises have been specially developed for and around the Nintendo DS.
There is 3 main modes in Brain Training, the first one is your brain age check, this is the main mode of the game and where you can find out your brain age. The brain age check consists of 3 random tests from the pool of tests. And because some tests require you to speak into the DS it does ask you before hand if you are in a position to speak, if you are not it picks from the pool of tests that don’t require voice. While I don’t want spoil all tests I will run through some of the simpler ones that are available from the start. You unlock more tests by completing daily training and for everyday you train you get a stamp on your calendar the more stamps the more tests. The Stroop Test is the first test you’ll most likely encounter, the test consists of a colours being show on the screen, but however you don’t say the colours it says but the colour of the word. For example the word BLUE will show up but be colours yellow, you hold the DS about arms length away and say yellow. You will go through about 20-30 of these before if is it done, if you get too many wrong or the game is unable to pick up what you are saying it will stop your test and you will be forced to restart. Now you’ve probably heard around the internet about the problems the game has with blue. I too have experienced this and unfortunately there is no definitive way to say blue to the game, it may not be a problem for you but I know it was for me. Also we’ve been told by Nintendo Australia that they have worked on the voice recognition for us Aussies, so it is more accepting of our accent, good work Nintendo Australia.
Another test is the number cruncher; the test throws up to 15 numbers on the screen and will ask you a question regarding them. The numbers may be sliding, pulsing or rotating and will be one of the primary colours and black. An example question may be “How many Black 7s are there?” Moving on, my favorite mode has to be the Calculations x20 on the left (or right screen, depending on your settings, lefties fret not I’ve been playing this game for month so no worries) is the sums and the touch screen is one big text area and a erase. The game will start and you have to answer the sums as fast as possible if you make a mistake it will hurt your final score by deducting time. However if you make a mistake you can quickly hit erase before it submits the score.
Moving onto daily training now, Dr. Kawashima recommends that you do several of these training exercises each day to help improve your mental ability and of course your brain age. There are only 3 exercises to start with but you will unlock more as you get more stamps. Some of the daily training includes the tests from the brain age check as well as Calculations x100, Head Count, Syllable count, I won’t tell you what these ones do as they are not unlocked from the start and half the fun of Brain Training is unlocking and learning.
So what about the Graphics, Sound and all those other game things your meant to put into a review, you say? Well to be fair, the point of Brain Training is not meant to be a 3D masterpiece or an aural sensation. The graphics and GUI the game has serves their purpose very well. It is very simply laid out and the game is played by holding your DS unit like a book. All the on screen buttons are easy to use and as I said before anyone can pick up the game and automatically know what to do.
The sound effects in the game also serve there purpose very well, beeps and blings, a scratching noise like Pictochat when you type all sound clear and suit the game well. Little tunes are included when you finish a puzzle and in the main menu, as they are simple are meant to be. The gameplay score you see up the top refers to the way the game works, the touch screen recognition, voice and layout of the game, the value is referring to what you’re getting out of your $50 dollars. Not only do you get the main Brain Training and Age Checks but you’re also getting tons and tons of Sudoku puzzles, the interface for Sudoku is great and should work well in Sudoku Gridmaster as well.
So how long will you be playing this game for? Like any game you could be playing it forever however you’re only going to get about 15-30 minutes out of it a day. You can only record your brain age once a day and the puzzles are also only recorded once. You can of course do the training tests over and over again. The Sudoku included also adds value and the ability to save mid game is a welcome addition. Brain Training has taken Japan and the world by storm and I expect it do the same here. while the game may not be for the usual Nintendo target audience, buy the game give it a go and show your family. You never know you might sell some more copies. And one final tip from Dr Kawashima…
