Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain? Review

Written by: Tara Nicholson Posted: 7th January 2008

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How Old Is Your Brain?

Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain? Details:

	Puzzle
	Nintendo DS
	Nintendo
	Nintendo

Out Now

Now pay attention (stern look over the top of my glasses)! Inspired by the research of Dr Ryuta Kawashima, this game takes your brain back to school. The prominent Japanese Neuroscientist (and his floating head) will attempt to bring your brain back to life by challenging you to perform mental activities as quickly as possible. With the help of the fantastic DS and stylus (which makes a refreshing change as this nifty bit of kit is often overlooked!)

There are 11 testing brain training games with over 100 sudoku puzzles included for all those fans of the puzzle. With the guidance of your very own floating head you can work your way through the puzzles until your brain is once again shiny and pink, quick to calculate and assess situations! A demo version of brain training can be sent to your friends or you can go one step further and take part in a brain brawl with up to 16 other players and see who can solve maths problems the fastest!

You actually play this whole game with the DS on its side like a book, which is really comfortable. The floating head that guides you through the game asks if you are left or right handed (so the lefties out there can play in comfort as well)

Inside the quick play option on the menu screen there are things like sudoku, training and brain age check. The daily training sessions are all based on your brain age so depending on how dried up and shrivelled your grey matter is, will depend on the level of difficulty you as the gamer will experience!

Training involves activating your prefrontal cortex (these words you will see popping up regularly throughout the game). Drawing pictures, reading literature, counting people and equation solving are all part and parcel of brain training as a whole. Equation solving requires gamers to solve equations (obviously) and write the correct answer using the stylus. Sometimes this can be problematic, don't get me wrong, the recognition of numbers is very good but it’s not foolproof. If you’re a bit slow at writing the number 18 for example, just the 1 could be recognised or the 8 could be perceived as a 6 and then your answer will be wrong and you will get a big fat red cross! So speed and accuracy are the name of the game!

After each session, you will be given information detailing how quickly you answered, any penalties you incurred and the current level you are at, on that particular section, described by man-speed? What is man-speed I hear you say? Well currently I am at walking speed for one of my training sessions and have a cool little silhouette man strutting back and forth across my screen! Up to four files can be created on one console, so if you let you family or mates get there sticky little mitts on your DS they don’t have to use your file and send your brain age through the roof! The youngest brain age gamers can have apparently is 20 years old and progress is easily checked by simply reading a graph containing all your results.

The graphics are pretty basic in this game because they don’t need to be of a high level. However, they are bright, clear and more than adequate for the aim of the game, which is to train lazy brains, not distract you with pretty characters and scenery!

There are no actual characters in this game so the audio is a bit poor. The only sound is an annoying beeping noise and the only way to get rid of it is to turn the sound off on your DS! Gamers will have to speak during some sessions like the 'stroop test' which involves saying the colour as quickly as possible as soon as it appears on the screen. Some players with broad accents may find this problematic because it’s sensitive to background noise and makes you waste precious seconds by repeat yourself!

The most irritating thing I found about this game is that it doesn’t matter if you play it once a day or 6 times a day you still have to keep tapping away to skip the same set of instructions and facts time and time again. The good thing is that it’s probably one of the only games where the lowest score is the best! So, if you’re serious about training your brain or are just like me and enjoy competing against friends or yourself, then this game is absolutely great! Worth the money I hear you cry??? Its worth it just to see if your brain is dustier than your grannies!