How Old Is Your Brain? (Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training (DS))

Member Name: Recon

Product:	Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training (DS)
Date:	07/03/08 (132 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Unique, Educational, Stimulates brain, Good for your skills, Quite fun, Many different games, Cheap

Disadvantages: Low replay value - Gets boring quite quickly

This is an excellent game that I bought a while back and have tried to use on a regular basis! It really works and trains your brain, but is fun! It has been a great selling game and is very unique in the way it actually works your brain at the same time as being joyful. There are loads of different exercises and parts of the game to keep you having fun and to keep your brain working! As well as the ability to do the brain test everyday to check out your latest brain age, you can practice many different exercises everyday!

You can play sudoku on this game and it works very well. You can choose a grid size, with it getting harder as the grid gets larger. You then work your way through it by using the stylus to draw numbers on the touch screen. This works very effectively and is fun to do as well! You can even make temporary notes on squares as to what number you think it may be to help you work it out.

There are also many English-orientated games such as a syllable count game. You must count the number of syllables per word with well-known phrases. There is even one exercise where you read out loud long paragraphs, which isn't the kind of thing to do on a train on the way to work, but is quite good fun. The inbuilt microphone on the console picks up the sound very well and also recognises what you say. There are many more games to do with words like memorising them.

Back to the maths subject, there are even more games to keep your brain stimulated. One involves you counting as fast as you can in ascending order to a certain amount. I don't see how this one trains your brain but the rest seem to. There are other memory games to do with maths and numbers, which are really good to do. My favourite is the mental arithmetic maths where you work out the answers to simple sums (or not so simple) as quickly as you can and it times you. Another effective game is one where you link letters to numbers in ascending order such as A-1, B-2, C-3, but you have to look carefully to see where the numbers and letters are and complete it as quick as possible!

My brain training age started at around 66 or something ridiculous. The younger your brain age, the better it is. I have now managed to get mine down to 26, which is more like it! The brain age test that can be done once a day contains a variety of exercises and measures your brain age after. There is also a lot of information given out about your brain such as what areas are for certain things, which is kind of interesting.

It is a great game and there isn't much more to comment on. The sounds are appropriate and clear. The graphics are very simple too as it isn't a moving game and it's more like going through menus. Therefore, the graphics aren't of great importance but they seem fine anyway. The only thing I found is that the replay value is pretty bad and I only played this game for a month and a bit before it sat there in my drawers. It gets a bit boring after a while - especially when you get your brain age down to a good enough age!

Overall, the game can be bought at £16.98 on amazon.co.uk, which isn't a bad price at all. It really does help to stimulate your brain everyday and improve your general skill at everything from mental maths that you do in your head to your English skills as well! Overall, it can even improve your IQ over time as it works your brain very well and is designed to do so! So, apart from damaging your eyes (probably barely), it does you some good too and is surprisingly fun to play! I was amazed at the amount of people who I know have the game. I would highly recommend it as it is unique and great fun - not a bad price either.


Thanks for reading,


- Recon -

Summary: A very unique game aimed at improving your brain age to a minimal age!