Improve you brain power with the DS (Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training (DS))

Member Name: Degeneratemoo

Product:	Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training (DS)
Date:	03/08/09 (19 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Genuinely increased brain processing power

Disadvantages: One or two of the challenges less enjoyable than others

Brain training was one of the first real reasons I noticed the DS and decided to get one. It's well known that if you don't lose it, you lose it (ha!) and this is especially true with your brain. Research has shown that older people who remain mentally active i.e. playing chess etc, retain their brain functions longer, resulting in a better quality of life, those who just sit in front of the telly all day watching Jeremy Kyle, well they're just asking for dementia!

Braining training is exactly what it says on the tin (plastic case), a series of mental challenges designed to improve your brain processing power and though patterns. It does this by providing a variety of different challenges, including mathematics (basic adding up, dividing etc), reading, counting, memorising etc.

You have daily training exercises which do not last too long so it's pretty easy to fit it into your day. You then get a daily test which shows you your 'brain age' in years, with the aim of getting it equal or below your real age. Now I know that this 'brain age' figure is pretty arbitrary but it does give you an indication as to how well you are doing in the game.

Despite what anyone says (and there have been reports that this sort of game does no good at all) the more you play, the more your brain age comes down. I found that with the maths especially, when I started off I was struggling to get it all done in a decent time, after a few days practising I was flying through them, and that's not because it's the same everytime, it's always random. My maths processing power was improving and I found this in real life too!

This was the same for the other modes too, my memory was improving (at least on the memory game) and I was getting faster with the counting. Ultimately I managed to get a brain age of 21 (I'm 31) which I was pretty happy with.

There's also a multiplayer mode where you take the challenges and face off again another person via the wireless connection (not over the internet though), it's pretty frantic when your trying to get your maths done faster than the other person and this really pushes you to do well!

To track your progress there are graphs etc to show you how you're doing and there's always the disembodied head floating there to have a chat with you. Oh, if you listen to what he says throughout the game he'll tell you things he doesn't like.. if you say those things into the microphone on the title screen he gets most upset!!

Both this and the sequel are excellent games and well worth getting, especially if you can get if for £5.00 as shown above!

Summary: I feel smarter already.....