Friday, July 23, 2010

Game review- Dr. Kawashima's brain traiining for DS




Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day!, also known as Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain? in PAL regions, is an entertainment video game that employs puzzles. It was developed and published by the video gaming company Nintendo for the Nintendo DS handheld video game console.

It is not exactly a game but a daily training for your brain. It has math calculations, sudoku and various other fun and interactive games to help train your brain. Dr. Kawashima explains that the brain is like the body- if you don't exercise it, it will become weak and prone to diseases like Parkinsons, alzheimers etc. This game is based to a degree on his findings, but it is not scientifically proven to enhance brain power or something.

The game measures your brain age (it depends on how active and agile your brain is. The best possible age is 20. Anything older than that is old.) by giving a series of three random tests everyday. It also has many other games like calculating the difference between time on two clocks, counting syllables, keeping track of how many people enter or leave the house, memorizing the positions of random numbers shown on the screen and writing them down etc.

I feel very energized doing these exercises but sometimes when I am very sleepy or tired, I get bad scores because my brain is not concentrating. The game really improves concentration and forces you to focus and beat your own high scores. Multiple players can play and compare their performances (there are four save slots)

Pros
Helps keep your brain active
You might actually get better at mental math and sudoku!

Cons
Not for very young kids who can't do math
Not everyone might like the academic approach
It is not very colorful
There is no fighting or action

But still, it is a pretty enjoyable game.

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