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Brain Training Review - DS

Introduction

I sit here today writing this review with my DS telling me I have a brain age of 20 - the best age possible in the game. I find this mildly insulting, as I'm younger than 20 and know many people over twenty I consider myself smarter than. That may sound stuck up, but I'm sure you could think of people you think you're smarter than, and the mere fact that you just briefly considered it proves me correct. But I think I'm getting a little off-track.

I have to say, Nintendo hit a home run with this title in terms of getting the non-gamer playing. I gave Brain Training to my dad on Father's Day, and within five minutes of him apparently being unable to say 'red', my mum wanted to have a go. Now she's been able to get her brain age down below her actual age. My sister plays it too. Full marks, Nintendo. 4 out of 4.

Gameplay

The idea is simple. Do different mental exercises daily to activate your brain and get it working better, much in the same way that you'd take regular tennis lessons to improve your technique. Activities included in the game include the Stroop test, where words like 'Red', 'Blue' or 'Black' appear on screen, and you have to name the colour of the font it's written in, not the word itself; simple maths sums in a couple of different forms; counting the people entering and leaving a house and then writing the number inside; watching boxes on one screen flash with numbers, then tapping equivalent boxes on the other in the order of lowest to highest, and more, including something like 1.5 billion Sudoku.

Before I get further into it, I might just point out that there has been criticism that doing these sorts of things simply makes you good at these tasks, and perhaps the brain training doesn't extend into other exercises. The argument is that doing a crossword per day, every day, makes you great at crosswords, but it doesn't teach you to ride a horse. Now, I tend to be a cynical person and lean towards this kind of thinking, but whatever. Make of it what you will.

So besides the somewhat shaky scientific reasoning, how does it play? Well, four people can set up an account on the card, and get to work training. Each day, you can log in, do a few exercises, get a stamp on your calendar (proof you played it that day) and unlock more activities. If you persevere for twenty days, you should have unlocked everything. It is a bit depressing only having a few (I think it was three) exercises to do on the first day, but they'll start to trickle out as you use it more, and it's certainly impetus to return.

All this is well and good, and it'll certainly amuse/interest the fabled 'non-gamers', so it was a smart move to have a 'Quick Play' mode accessible from the title screen. This lets anyone ... (continued next page)