mwreview 2008-10-09
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Brain Age is a brain training game to keep your brain young designed by renown neuroscientist Dr. Ryuta Kawashima. I had a lot of fun with this game for a few months. It shows what the DS is capable of doing--understand your voice through the microphone and what you write with the stylus. After I opened all the training games and scored as well as I think I can on them, read all the training tips, and noticed repeats in drawing exercises and the stories to read aloud, the game got boring and I was no longer motivated to turn it on.
The game starts with a test to calculate your brain age. You see words of colors like "red," "black," "blue," "yellow," but you have to say the color that the word is, not the word itself. For example if you see the word "red" printed in blue, you need to say "blue," not "red." This test was sometimes frustrating because it couldn't always understand "blue" for some reason. You can be tested in other ways to determine your brain age. My favorite is the list of words you memorize and then write as many down as you remember. I wish that was a daily training game.
There are nine daily training games. In this first Brain Age, the exercises are math-heavy which I enjoyed but others may not. It keeps track of how many correct answers you give and how quickly you finish the games and scores you accordingly. It also keeps graphs of how you do over time. You also get an indication of how fast you were by its standards with graphics like a man walking, a car driving back and forth, a jet flying, or a space shuttle taking off. Two exercises are a series of simple math problems to answer as fast as you can. Next you read passages of classic novels aloud (I never scored super high on this one, I can't imagine someone reading aloud fast enough to get a space shuttle score). "Low to High" flashes several different numbers in squares and you have to memorize them fast enough to tell the game where you saw the lowest number, the next lowest, and so on.
"Syllable Count" was one of the easiest for me. It give you well-known sayings and you count the syllables. In "Head Count", you have to keep track of who is coming into and leaving a house so you can tell the computer how many are in the house at the end. When the game speeds up, it can be very challenging. "Triangle Math" is more math problems but more complicated because you use the answers to the first problems to find answers to the next. "Time Lapse" shows you two clocks (with hands) and you need to figure out how much time has gone by. "Voice Calculation" is more math problems only you answer them out loud. Again, sometimes the game could not figure out what was being said (especially thinking "six" was "seven") which was very frustrating. You get a brain tip after each game and, after reading the same ones several times, I just zoomed through them without looking at them. It got annoying.
In addition, you're sometimes asked to draw things from memory. If you have more than one player, it will compare the drawings which is fun. It also keeps track of the calendar. It will ask you a question one day and, a few days later, ask you for the answer you gave to that question to see if you remember. The game also offers many sudoku puzzles that range in difficulty. Sudoku works very well with the D.S., but make sure the game translates your numbers correctly before zooming out. Sometimes it will think you wrote a different number even if you wrote clearly. I've actually gotten into the habit of writing open-headed 4's because of this game. Sudoku usually worked well.
The game is fun but the re-playability (unlike Sims games, for example, that I have literally played in their entirety three of four times) is low once you've mastered it by scoring a 20 brain age. It is unique though, and may be the only homework kids will want to do for awhile.
