Brain Age

Dr Ryuta Kawashima is convinced that if you play a video game daily, it can make you smarter. No, I'm not kidding, and nor is he- and he's got the video game to prove it.

Brain Age: Train your Brain in Minutes a Day is a game purely built around science, and it still manages to be fun. Built around Dr. Ryuta Kawashima's theory that the brain needs to be trained like any muscle in your body, he has created a game that, if you play it enough, will make you smarter. Featuring a handful of specifically designed mini games, along with some “Just for fun” things like Sudoku, Brain Age guarantees that by playing it for a few minutes every day, you will become smarter, remember things with more speed, and overall have a better grasp on things.

The history of this game is actually quite fascinating. When I heard about this game when it hit Japan, I laughed- never before has a game based around academic prowess hit anything but the trash can of the modern gamer. Sure, I played Reader Rabbit back when I was a kid on my DOS based system, but did I really think it was up to par with Super Mario and his band of friends? Absolutely not. So when I heard this game was cited as being the reason the DS dominates Japan, I was confused. What about Brain Age made it so popular? Did it come with a free bag of cocaine?




Well, I finally can tell you, it's a wonderful game- minus the cocaine. Brain Age: Train your Brain is truly an odd game, and is nothing like what I would expect on my shiny DS screen, but I can say that I really think it proves itself in the long run. Much along the lines of popular Nintendo titles like the “Wario Ware” series, Brain Age is all about speed and repetition in little mini games, and instead of being just bizarre and odd, it has a purpose- making you smarter. From doing a lot of math problems in lightning speed to reading out loud to even counting spinning numbers, tons of little pointless mini games with a purpose flit on your screen, and you slowly but surely become smarter. Wow.

Let me say that I took this game with a grain of salt. Honestly, I never really thought that this game would ever work, because Video Games are rarely educational. It's like a trade off- either you're entertaining or you're educational. There is no middle ground. Well, Brain Age took that middle ground and managed to stake it for itself, because I even found myself dropping my latest DS addiction (Metroid Prime: Hunters) to do a little math. And everyone thinks I'm crazy.

The whole concept of Brain Age is literally the title- your “Brain Age”- that is, how quickly your brain calculates and responds. Taking some study references by Dr. Kawashima himself, the game regularly tests your “Brain Age”, and tells you how close you are to “Perfect” (That is, a 20 year old brain). Testing can involve something simple as a color game (Saying the color of the word, not the word), to matching numbers and letters (1-A, 2-B, 3-C, etc). The tests are actually somewhat humiliating at first (Especially when you mess up and end up with a 80 year old brain), but slowly, the game shows you how you get “younger” in the game, and you inch closer and closer to the perfect standard- the brain aged 20.

Brain Age, like I mentioned above, is a bunch of little mini games all strewn together in the name of training your gamer brain. These mini games are stupidly simplistic, but still enjoyable- for example, doing 100 third-grade-level math problems while being timed. Not only did this show me how badly I needed to go back to third grade and stop relying on a shiny TI-84 Graphing Calculator, but it also showed me really how it was training me. The first day I played this, it took me around five minutes to complete the 100 problems- that's about three seconds per problem, known in that game as “Walking Speed”, or in layman's terms, “You're stupid”. After four days, I'm up to “Train” speed, clocking in at about 2 minutes for 100 problems, without even breaking a sweat.

I may be just patting myself on the back there, but the same results are shown on virtually every mini game. For example, today, as I write this review, I'm fighting back allergies, and I have a headache that makes everything 200 decibels louder. Now, with that in mind, the game noticed this- to the point of a little floating Dr. Kawashima head asking me “Are you tired?” and recommending I stop. Holy hell. Never before has a game like that noticed I had a head cold- hell, I'm tearing up at shooter games today- but this game is so attuned, it managed to notice that I feel like someone slammed a baseball bat into the back of my head.

All of this is set up into an account system that lets up to four people use the same DS cart to learn- as the game is specifically designed to accommodate a small family. It's always fun to have a small competition against people using the cart as to who can get smarter faster, but it can also get frustrating as well. The game has no scruples about making each user challenge each other, and if you get under another account's set score (Like, if one player finishes something in 30 seconds and you take 50 seconds), Dr. Kawashima's little floating head avatar has nothing wrong with rubbing that in your face. Jerk.




Because Brain Age is such a simplistic game, it seems somewhat empty, but for a budget title (Something like $20), it's surprisingly packed. New to the American version is the ever popular puzzle Sudoku, which is fully operational on Brain Age with a huge array of puzzles to stump any fan. Along with this, the game also features a pretty interesting DS Download Play feature, which means one Brain Age game can connect with up to 16 other DS sets and send a Brain Age demo, or even a “Calculation Battle”, where the aforementioned gamers try to best each other in a match of 30 quick math problems. This is somewhat fun- nothing as complex as the multiplayer in games like Mario Kart DS or Metroid Prime: Hunters, but it's enough to keep me happy and geeky.

For $20, Brain Age: Train your Brain in Minutes a Day is really a steal. The game features everything you could really want in an educational title, and is fun enough to keep you entertained for hours upon hours (though it gets mad at you if you play it for too long instead of doing it daily). While this is an educational title and nowhere near what anyone would consider a good game purchase, I can honestly say that it really is one of the best DS titles I have ever played, and manages to be sufficiently odd to get anyone's attention, like Katamari Damacy. This is thew kind of game I imagine myself getting a relative if he/she had a DS- not because I like being a jerk at Christmas, but because I know I could give it without feeling the guilt of giving a Video Game, and I know it would be something that the person would actually benefit from. The only thing that sums this game up well is the fact that, when it comes tit-for-tat, I purchased this game at the same time as I did Metroid Prime: Hunters, and I continue to play it more than Hunters.

But hold on a second. Before I run off and say “I recommend this game go get it right now”, I can't do that. This game has to lose some points, primarily because it is not for everyone. Even though I would get it for aforementioned relative, plenty of people hate this game, and I really can't go running off recommending it when I know some people detest it so. That being said, take the rating this way- if you're the type of person looking for a good intellectual challenge, pick this game up, it's 5 stars for you. If your idea of a good video game involves absolutely no thinking (See: any given sports game), then this game is one star for you, you will hate it. So, to even things nicely, I'll give this game three stars- it simply depends on what you're looking for in a game. In my opinion, I'll be playing this game until my DS breaks.

3 star(s) out of 5

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