Review: Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day!

Graphics- 8/10
Sound- 9.5/10
Gameplay- 9/10
Replay Value- 8.5/10
Overall- 8.5/10

Brain Age is a great pick up for the price, but be warned this is not for every one. It strays away from typical video games and actually forces to think. Seriously.

Brains age is Nintendo trying to capture a different audience when it comes to Video Game. They where aiming for an adult audience, if you remember the commercials that ran when this game first came out. It was aimed at the "forgetful" adult, who wants to improve their brain power. This game apparently achieved that because it is one of the best selling games for the DS. To me it is pretty obvious why. It is actually a good game, I did not expect to like it as much as I did. From your first brain age check you will become hooked on lowering it to twenty. The problem is that when you get it low you might not play for a few days because you are afraid of re-lowering it, or you risk having to take a test that you are bad at. Speaking of tests let's talk about those seeing as that is the main point of the game.

The first two tests I'll talk about are the most obvious ones, the calculation tests. There is Calculation x20 and Calculation x100. The two tests are basically said numbers of different types of Math problems. Calculation x20 is obviously the easier of the two, but not just because there is a lower amount of problems, they also seem to be easier. Calculation x100 is much more grueling and annoying (in that good "I'm so close" way.) The only big problem is you will most likely have problems with some numbers at first, mainly four and eight. The problem with four is that sometimes it can be misread as a nine, which is understandable. The bigger of the two problems it eight - you have to draw it perfectly straight and that is pretty hard when you are trying to go really fast. After awhile though you won't have that much of a problem. The next test is Syllable Count. This test is simple enough, yet addictive. You are given a phrase and you have to write the correct amount of syllables. The first time you attempt this test you might be surprised, because it is actually harder than it seems. The first couple of times I was surprised at my overall score, but by the third time I was much improved (yes, the game does actually work.) I still remember the first time I didn't get any wrong, it was surprisingly exciting. The next test is by far the worst one - Reading Aloud. You are given a passage and you have to read out loud as fast as you can..don't slur though. There are two problems A.) You feel like a complete idiot, and B.) It is way two easy to cheat, you can just hit next even if you haven't read the passage. Thank god you have the option of saying weather or not you can speak aloud. Nest is Head Count. One of the hardest ones by far. You have to count a certain number of people and then a house falls down in front of them. People then start to enter or leave the house. You have to keep track of the number of people in the house because at the end you have to write the correct number of people in the house. Lastly we have is Low to High. Sets of numbers are shown on the left and you have to quickly memorize them because once they disappear you have to touch the correct boxes from low to high on the right side. There are a few other tests I didn't mention, mainly because they are nothing special and they work well.

The other aspect of the game is the Sudoku. This works out very well mainly because any number problems you experienced seem to melt away during play. This is also helped by the fact that you are given time to make sure the number is read correctly before you accept. There are over 100 puzzles on three varying levels of difficulty, so it's sure to keep any Sudoku avid busy for at least a little bit. The other great thing about this game is Dr. Kawashima - he's hilarious! Just watch his face and you'll see what I'm talking about and some of the tips he gives you are actually pretty useful. The only really bad thing is that you have to unlock certain games and they can take a real long time, at least some of them can. If you are thinking about buying this game be warned this is not a party game, but it is fun in general. Basically Nintendo nailed what they were trying to do by appealing to older gamers so proceed with caution if you aren't and older gamer or if this is something that isn't that appealing to you...if it isn't why are you reading this?

Pros: Sudoku, Dr. Kawashima, Some games work well.
Cons: Some games don't work well, Not a party game.

Review: Dan