Multiply or Die! (Professor Kageyama's Maths Training (DS))

Member Name: oxonian

Product:	Professor Kageyama's Maths Training (DS)
Date:	15/06/08 (333 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent for maintaining the mathematical side of the brain

Disadvantages: Moderately challenging

My fiancée, as I am, is a massive fan of the self-assessment games on the DS and Wii, such as the hugely popular Brain training, Word Coach and Sight training games. In February 2008, for Valentine's Day, I treated her to Professor Kageyama's Maths Training... perfect romantic gift!

The premise of the game is to improve your basic numeracy skills, such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Similar to the other brain improvement games on the DS, you will only benefit if you use Maths Training on a frequent basis. The game gives you twenty levels to progress through - and each level is scheduled to last a week, hence there will be some mileage for the consumer. Notably, though, Maths Training will not evolve into anything complicated such as Algebra or Trigonometry - this game is broadly designed to allow your mathematical side of the brain function more quickly and effectively.

When you turn the game on for the first time, you will notice that you will be using the DS vertically, rather than horizontally, meaning the screens will be left and right as opposed to top and bottom. You are firstly asked to create a profile. Having tapped in your name and stipulated that you are either left or right handed, the main menu will arise, which will greet you with three options, which are 'Daily test', 'Kageyama Method' and 'Practice Exercises'.

Daily test - this puts you through three exercises - which could be a simple 10 question subtraction exercise, or addition exercise, which is timed to give an indication of your progress level. The calculations will appear as "5 - 3 = " on the left hand screen, giving you the opportunity to write your answer on the right hand screen. There is also a flash card exercise, where on the left hand screen a card pops up momentarily with a number of items on it, and then on the right hand screen you have to enter the amount of items you've counted.

Kageyama Method - this is the main feature of the game. In essence, as opposed to the simple 10 question format you will encounter in the tests and practice games, the method will provide you with a marathon format of numerical calculations. When you select this option, you are able to execute this method alone, or with up to 15 friends, via download play. The method is split into two main parts - '100 Cell Maths' where you do 100 interlinked subtractions, additions or multiplications, and 'Division Marathon'. This will be, for some, a very challenging and stretching exercise and, for the supreme mathematicians out there, this will be fun.

Lastly, you have the Practice Exercises, of which there are forty you can choose from. The massive abundance means that there is plenty of variety to keep your brain stimulated. Typical exercises include simple addition, '9 Times Table', 'Fill the blanks Multiplication', 'Sentence Sums', which is expressed as "9 is 3 plus ?", and many many more. As it is timed, your top 3 best times are recorded, and the challenge will come from bettering your time until it is almost physically impossible to do it any quicker.

Very similar to Brain Training, this is a very quirky game. The music in the game is very easy listening, and almost Japanese sounding, with soft and gentle, but repetitive, melodies, meaning they can become quite annoying after a while. Essentially, it complements the quirkiness very well.

As with a lot of the 'fun' Nintendo DS games, the quality of graphics is not an important issue. With Maths Training, the illustrations are bright and colourful with the predominant colour on the screen being Orange - as indicated by the packaging of the game. Moreover, the characters and menu screen manifest in cartoony, almost manga-style, fashion.

This is a very playable game, and is useful for giving you a fun but good basic numeracy workout - hence it satisfies its premise. However, if you are looking for this game to make you Pythagoras or some kind of mathematical genius then it will certainly not do that. Any GCSE student would find this a bore after a while, and would undoubtedly rip all of your records to shreds. It will be a more relevant game to someone that left education a while ago and just wants to keep their maths skills in check or for children in latter primary school or early secondary school.

Personally, I like it - it's fun, colourful and harmless, and will be useful in keeping my noggin in working order. I have played it numerous times, and I constantly strive to beat my personal best performances. I find the best challenge to be the 100 cell maths exercise, and it has certainly been fun to try and better my time for the multiplications aspect. My only criticism is that, although there is an expansive multitude of exercises, the maths involved is of a very basic level, hence why I play this sporadically rather than frequently. This game would have benefitted from having advanced level maths, e.g. fractions and algebra for those who are either a) very clever or b) have progressed beyond the basic skill level. Nevertheless, this is an excellent game, and I fully recommend it.

This can be purchased in HMV and other good electronics retailers for £19.99

Summary: Quirky, fun and simple mathematics game!