There is much to talk about to talk about this game. It’s not even a game. It’s more like a “training program”. It consists in some exercises which are supposed (?) to train your brain daily. When you begin the game for the first time, you have the surprise to discover that, to play, you have to play by holding your DS vertically as you would do with a small book (The DS Lite is lot more comfortable in this position). And then, a floating Japanese head with glasses (Dr. Kawashima) welcome you and ask you which hand you use to write. You then have to turn the DS according to the answer. After that, Dr. Kawashima explains you the different options of the menu.

The Quick Play option allows you to play some exercises quickly and to compete against your friends in mental disciplines. That option looks like a demo and other DS owner can download it as they would do with a real demo.

The Daily Training option is the main part of the game. Your first enter some information (date, birth date…) and then you play some mental exercises (more complex than in Quick Play). According to your results and your performances, Dr. Kawashima will determine your Brain Age. 20 is the best possible result so if your brain’s older than 20, you must train it more. To train your brain daily, Dr. Kawashima explains you that you have to do a least 2 exercises from around 20. If you do 2 exercises, you will earn a stamp (“OK”) printed on the game’s calendar. When you have some stamps, you will get more exercises to play with. Why 2? It’s because there are only a few exercises available on the beginning. For example you can play at the “calculation x20” which features 20 simple calculations (+, -, x…). This exercise is short and frustrating, but it’s a lot more interesting to play the longer “calculation x100”. Another game features 30 words which you have to remember in 3 minutes and then write within 2 minutes.

In addition to these calculation and memory games, some other games feature the distinction of colors, the articulation while reading a text aloud, the observation and the dexterity. All the exercises are made to make the play quick and instinctive by using the Touch screen and the DS mic. You have to write numbers and letters with the stylus on the Touch Screen and tell your answers in the mic. If you don’t write your answers clearly, the game will sometimes confuse some letters (like 5 and 2 or H and R…). So you will have to train a lot to be able to always have the right and clear answers. Some exercises are very hard, some are just right, and the others are too much easy. Some players wouldn’t like this irregularity and would play only the hard or their favourite games. These little defects make the Training as not credible as it would be…

To unlock all the exercises, you will have to work a few days by doing a least two exercise a day. The game’s goal isn’t to try to beat your own records every day. It’s just to train your brain daily (even if I’m not sure if it really works…). But at the end of your exercise, Dr. Kawashima will associate your performance to a transport mode speed: walking speed, bicycle speed, car speed, train speed and plane speed. The floating head will also give you constructive comments and advices to do better next time.
You will need around 20 stamps on your calendar to get your brain age to 20 by playing around 10 minutes a day. This game wasn’t made to Hard-Core gamers who play a game all day long. It was made to people who play sometimes and just want to have fun by doing these funny exercises and to train their brain easily without efforts. The game also features a Sudoku game which is great when you get bored by the mental exercises. But the game still stays on the puzzle aspect of the game.

Brain Age: Train your Brain in minutes a day is a great game with an amazing potential. But you must be careful with it because it wasn’t made to play as a “real” game. If you want to have some daily fun and some little challenges, that game is perfect. I give a correct score to Brain Age because it’s the score a “normal” gamer would give to it. But if you correspond to the characteristics upper it would merit a higher score. If someone told you, when you were at school, that someday you would enjoy an intelligent game, I’m sure you would have told him he was mad…

Hope you liked this review.

Jacojac