Post by Gilvan Blight on Jul 31, 2007 11:27:59 GMT -5
[glow=red,2,300]Quickly:[/glow] for an educational game it's a lot of fun, but you don't get much fun in one sitting.
[glow=red,2,300]Summary: [/glow]this was one of the over hyped DS launch titles. For a while there everyone was going nuts over this. It was written by some Japanese brain scientist and was created as a Brain training tool. It's a series of 'mini games' designed to activate your pre-frontal cortex. Supposedly doing this will improve your memory, your reaction time, your problem solving skills, and other general brain improvements. The game starts by doing a rough and dirty calculation on the 'age' of your brain playing a game where you read words and say what colour they are. There are only 4 words, yellow, red, black and blue and they can be one of those four colours. Of course you want to say what you read, but you need to say the colour. It's actually harder then you would think. The game uses the DS mic for this which is a nice touch. Once you have your Brain Age, you can then take part in Training courses. These reset daily. The game starts with only 2 unlocked but as you use it it unlocks more. These are mostly math based games, but some test your memory as well. All are designed to activate your pre-frontal cortex a different way. This is the meat of the game. You can later re-calculate your Brain Age through a series of three random tests. All test results are graphed so you can see how you have improved.
In addition to this the game also contains 100 Sudoku puzzles and has a great system for inputting data into a puzzle (including making small notes in each square).
[glow=red,2,300]The Good:[/glow] actually a lot more fun then it sounds. Trying to beat personal bests each day keeps you coming back, and the fact we have had this for over a month and are still unlocking new training 'games' keeps me coming back. Also there are 'interruptions' that are kind of fun. Where the Dr. will ask you to draw things, or remember what you had to eat 4 days ago, etc. The graphics for the doctors head are rather amusing. This is a great pick up and play game as nothing takes very long to do. The brain Age check takes a bit longer then the rest of the 'games' but not much.
[glow=red,2,300]The Bad: [/glow]the fact that there are only so many training games and the fact it only records your first score in each of the day (generally meaning you will only want to play each once a day) means that there isn't really much gameplay to be had from this in a day. You literally pick it up for about 10 minutes or so, do your training and put it down. Then done for the day. It's not what most people will be used to. There are the Sudoku puzzles to give you something to do though, and the fact that you come back every day to see how much 'smarter' you have gotten makes the long term gameplay much higher then the daily.
[glow=red,2,300]The Ugly: [/glow]the letter recognition for the stylus is rather good, but no where near perfect. When you are playing a training where your record is 23 seconds to finish it, it's extremely frustrating when the system won't recognize a number you have written.
[glow=red,2,300]Overall: [/glow]this one lives up to the type. If you enjoy challenging yourself at all, or like puzzles at all, or math, you must pick this up. Even if you don't you may enjoy this one none the less. IMO this is a must have game, and I can't wait for part 2 to come out.
[glow=red,2,300]Summary: [/glow]this was one of the over hyped DS launch titles. For a while there everyone was going nuts over this. It was written by some Japanese brain scientist and was created as a Brain training tool. It's a series of 'mini games' designed to activate your pre-frontal cortex. Supposedly doing this will improve your memory, your reaction time, your problem solving skills, and other general brain improvements. The game starts by doing a rough and dirty calculation on the 'age' of your brain playing a game where you read words and say what colour they are. There are only 4 words, yellow, red, black and blue and they can be one of those four colours. Of course you want to say what you read, but you need to say the colour. It's actually harder then you would think. The game uses the DS mic for this which is a nice touch. Once you have your Brain Age, you can then take part in Training courses. These reset daily. The game starts with only 2 unlocked but as you use it it unlocks more. These are mostly math based games, but some test your memory as well. All are designed to activate your pre-frontal cortex a different way. This is the meat of the game. You can later re-calculate your Brain Age through a series of three random tests. All test results are graphed so you can see how you have improved.
In addition to this the game also contains 100 Sudoku puzzles and has a great system for inputting data into a puzzle (including making small notes in each square).
[glow=red,2,300]The Good:[/glow] actually a lot more fun then it sounds. Trying to beat personal bests each day keeps you coming back, and the fact we have had this for over a month and are still unlocking new training 'games' keeps me coming back. Also there are 'interruptions' that are kind of fun. Where the Dr. will ask you to draw things, or remember what you had to eat 4 days ago, etc. The graphics for the doctors head are rather amusing. This is a great pick up and play game as nothing takes very long to do. The brain Age check takes a bit longer then the rest of the 'games' but not much.
[glow=red,2,300]The Bad: [/glow]the fact that there are only so many training games and the fact it only records your first score in each of the day (generally meaning you will only want to play each once a day) means that there isn't really much gameplay to be had from this in a day. You literally pick it up for about 10 minutes or so, do your training and put it down. Then done for the day. It's not what most people will be used to. There are the Sudoku puzzles to give you something to do though, and the fact that you come back every day to see how much 'smarter' you have gotten makes the long term gameplay much higher then the daily.
[glow=red,2,300]The Ugly: [/glow]the letter recognition for the stylus is rather good, but no where near perfect. When you are playing a training where your record is 23 seconds to finish it, it's extremely frustrating when the system won't recognize a number you have written.
[glow=red,2,300]Overall: [/glow]this one lives up to the type. If you enjoy challenging yourself at all, or like puzzles at all, or math, you must pick this up. Even if you don't you may enjoy this one none the less. IMO this is a must have game, and I can't wait for part 2 to come out.