Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day

Brain Age is a game of mathematical equations, logic puzzles, reading exercises, and more with the curious goal of stimulating a player's gray matter. Based on the research of Japanese neurologist Ryuta Kawashima, the premise behind Brain Age is that certain regions of the brain can become more active, more "healthy," through specific, timed exercises repeated on a daily basis. Played with the touch screen positioned on either the left or right side, like a book, the game involves using the stylus to jot down numbers, draw lines between dots, and so forth, while the microphone is used for calling out colors, reading passages aloud, and various other functions. Kawashima himself serves as the game's host and will offer pointed criticism or words of encouragement based on each test's results. The object is to make one's brain "younger" over time by playing each day for weeks or even months. Progress is charted via graph over a specified time period, with up to a year's worth of data stored in each of the game's four save files. Among the included activities are Syllable Count, Reading Aloud, Word Memory, Stroop Test, Speed Counting, Triangle Math, Connect Maze, Calculation, Head Count, and Low to High. The logic puzzle game Sudoku is also featured as a bonus, while up to 16 players can compete in a race to solve math problems.

Start Button = menu
Touch Screen = control training activities
Microphone = voice input ~ Keith Adams, All Game Guide

Brain Age is another welcome change of pace from Nintendo, a company that has recaptured its sense of originality with the surprising success of the DS handheld. It is not a game per se, but rather a short list of math and reading exercises meant, as the title explains, to be played minutes each day. The whole point is to stimulate the brain's prefrontal cortex through exercises designed to stimulate blood flow to the region. It is hoped that with daily training, one's brain age will gradually decrease to that of a quick thinking 20-year-old. The fast-paced exercises range from performing simple math calculations to counting syllables in short sentences.

Brain Age has few options or customization features. Players create a profile to save performance data and begin measuring their mind's maturity by completing a Stroop test, which involves quickly identifying word colors by speaking into the microphone. From that point on, players "train" their brain each day by selecting a handful of tasks. Once an exercise is complete, the top time or highest score is saved and players can either run through the activity again or call it a day. Only the first results of a particular activity are tracked, however, so there's no real point in repeating exercises. As players return to the game for more training, they'll eventually open up new activities.

Does this work? Based on in-game results, yes. Your brain age will decrease over time, but the game won't get you into Harvard; the best it can do is improve memory so you can curb your reliance on Post-It notes. It's also a repetitive game by design, and you really can't play for more than a few minutes each day due to a lack of content (there are only nine training activities). There is also some suspect speech recognition and a few dodgy results when scribbling numbers, but these can be minimized with practice. In the end, the game would have benefited from more varied exercises, randomly generated sudoku puzzles, and touch-screen activities to stimulate other parts of the noggin. Right or wrong, Brain Age's narrow focus places mind over matter. ~ Scott Alan Marriott, All Game Guide