Make Your Brain Sweat! (More Brain Training (DS))

Member Name: cazkins

Product:	More Brain Training (DS)
Date:	02/11/09 (88 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Intuitive and clever use of stylus, good handwriting recognition, easy to pick up & play

Disadvantages: Some training excercises became frustrating & have been ignored by me as the novelty wore off

I was bought this as a present when I got a DS at Christmas to keep my brain occupied before going to bed rather than driving myself mad by stressing. I had a rough idea of what to expect because I had heard about it before trying it, but then again, I would be surprised if there were many people who haven't at least heard of Brain Training.

More Brain Training was released in 2007, a year after the original 'Brain Training : How Old Is Your Brain?' was released in 2006. Brain Training was one of the first big games for the DS Lite, and there was a lot of hype about it. When the DS Lite started selling, many bundles offered Brain Training as part of the package, so it obviously wasn't long after its success that the next version came about.

More Brain Training was inspired by the Japanese neuroscientist Dr Kawashima, and as this is made known on the product, the overall feel of the game is reinforced as one of quality, almost as if it's backed up and proven by science as being effective.

The game is rated as being PG and suitable for ages 3+, though I would very much doubt a toddler would be able to complete some of these tasks! Perhaps one for older children and teens, this game is also great for adults. In fact, I would argue this is more of an adults game, though would perhaps be suitable also for older children and teenagers.

The game is marketed as a way to train your brain, sharpen your mind and challenge your skills. For me, a great deal of the appeal is in the fact it's an open-ended game. You can pick it up and play as much, or as little, as you want, whenever you want, and as there are no 'levels' to complete, it's endless. I prefer this to something other games with levels as I usually hit a brick wall with them and either get fed up or stuck, or the opposite and complete it quickly and find it's then made redundant. At least with this, it's a game you can keep hold of in your collection.

More Brain Training is 'packed with all new brain training techniques', a claim I can't really comment on as I haven't played the original. I'm not sure how the original compares to this one, but I would have thought this would be more advanced and a positive step forward from the previous.

I've seen adverts for Brain Training on tele recently, and it shows the game being used with other people, so it is technically an interactive game. You can save upto 4 individual player profiles, with upto 16 people using the same DS card, but the games generally are too fast to play with more than one person at once (ie. It's not really practical to have someone next to you trying to shout out your next move). That said, you can monitor your progress afterwards and compare it to your friends/family, and you can use the download for multiplayer games, so it is something that you can include other people in.

The leaflet that comes with the game gives an overview of the different games, as well as some scientific information on training your brain. Again, the science aspect reinforces the game as being something of quality, something that is scientifically sound and proven. I'm not sure how accurate this is, but I also think it depends on each individual person, which mini games you play, for how long and how often etc.

There are also a few tips on using the DS and getting the most out of your gameplay. For example, there's a bit in the booklet about clear pronunciation and the writing of letters for quick recognition.

There are three main sections on the main menu for gameplay:

Brain Age Check - A series of tasks to ascertain the age of your brain. This is unique and original, and quite fun to do, and at the end of it you'll see the age your brain is currently at. Don't be too shocked by this. I saw I'm nearing 80 and could have cried, but instead I laughed and got on with 'training my brain'. I really don't think you can take the age check seriously, especially if you're only just getting to grips with the game and the controls, but it's fun to do. You'll be glad to know that I've also shed several years off my age now!

Quick Play - This is what it sounds like. A speedy brain age check, quick training and sudoku.

Daily Training - Select this if you want to play the meat of the game. This include a full rain age check and/or your daily training. You need to check your age when you first start the game, but after that you can go into daily training.

As part of your daily training you get a selection of mini games to choose from, but when you first start you'll only see the first couple. The rest gradually appear as the days go on.

I quite like the calendar on this, which you stamp using the stylus after you play one game. This means you can keep track of which days you've trained your brain, which I think is quite funky. You can also design your own date stamp, using the options on the main menu.

The main settings include: Your signature, stamp, viewing of brain tips and the erasing of personal data. These help make the game personalised and suited to you, which makes the game more user-friendly and interactive.

As well as the settings to make it more personalised, you also get brain tips throughout the game, ie. After your first training exercise, and animated graphics for when you do well. The tips can be fairly interesting, but I think they're quite basic and can sometimes be a bit annoying as you keep pressing 'more' to get rid of them. Dr Kawashima makes an appearance on the left-hand screen and often says hello, or 'I've missed you', again making the game more friendly.

Prior to playing the games, events occur periodically. For example, every couple of days there'll be a quick exercise to complete before you can play. These include: acrostics, connect the dots and a picture quiz (but the latter only for multiplayer). At first, I thought these were quite quirky and enjoyed doing them, but as they got repeated a few times I just wanted to skip them, which you can do by just drawing something, anything, with your stylus and moving forward because there are no right or wrong answers.

The training games include the following:

Missing Symbols - general maths which is fast and quite simple
Masterpiece Recital - using the stylus to play a keyboard along to the music
Word Blend - Listening to a group of words at the same time and trying to distinguish the individual words
Word Scramble - Solving the word from a circle of jumbled up letters that are moving
Memory Addition - Keeping track of numbers as they are added together
Days & Dates - Quite a difficult one in my opinion, as you try to work out the day/date from the clues given
Correct Change - Fairly easy as you calculate the change you need to give, as a shopkeeper would do
Calculate the height - As it sounds
Finishing Position - Trying to keep track of some stickmen to see who finishes at which position
Determine The Time - A clock, from different angles, is shown and you need to work out the time. This is actually more difficult as it sounds as the time can be back to front too!
Germ Buster - A 'relaxing' game a bit like tetris. This is actually the game I play the most, so I tend to do missing symbols first, as you need to complete one training exercise before you can access Germ Buster, then play this before going to bed.

I must admit that the novelty of most of the above did wear off fairly quickly, especially as some of them can be quite difficult. Saying that, most do offer the chance of determining the difficulty, either easy, medium, or hard, which is a good option.

To play the game, you hold the DS like a book, and most instructions are given on the left hand screen. Using the game is interactive but mostly uses the stylus. The game pads aren't used, but there is a small amount of vocal work with the microphone when you're using the brain age check.

I was a bit sceptical at first about how easily the game would be to use with the stylus. Writing numbers and letters, and having them recognised by the DS, is very cool in my opinion, and is actually more accurate than I thought it would be. It will depend on your handwriting, but I find that more often than not, the DS will pick up what I'm writing very quickly. If you have any problems with it, you can refer to the instruction leaflet and see how they suggest letters and numbers are written for easy recognition.

It's the type of game you can pick up and play whenever you want, but if you want good results from it in terms of improving your brain age and recent scores (which are shown to you on a graph, which I think is pretty funky!) then a little every day or so is a good idea. I personally have seen a great improvement. Obviously, part of this is learning how to use the DS and stylus so your speed picks up, but I do think it's made me better at word games at least.

Overall, this is a unique game (apart from the original Brain Training of course!) and was one of the first of its kind on the DS. Other training style games have been released since, but I think this would be more superior, not to mention more popular.

As a bestseller, I think this game lives up to the hype to reasonable extent. It's creative, interactive and fun to use, and it gives your grey matter a workout. The best bit is that you can use it whenever, wherever you want, for as long or as little as you want, and you can keep it in your collection because you can't technically 'complete it'.

Definitely recommended if you have a DS and want something interesting and interactive, that has both easier and more challenging mini games. It also means you have a great excuse for playing it because you're 'doing the important task of 'training your brain'!

[ RRP £19.99 Selling on Amazon for £12.98 ]

Summary: Keep your brain in shape & have fun at the same time :o)