Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day!

« What impressed us most was the possibility that a player just might get hooked on Conrad or Bronte and this little handheld game might actually spark someone to put down the electronic gadget for a while and pick up a literary classic. »

« The game is such a blast because you only have about ten minutes each day to prove that you really are as quick and sharp as you were the day before. »

« Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain? is unique, compelling and in the long run, ultimately rewarding. The end result is a game that whilst graphically inept, deserves to be scooping up awards at the end of the year regardless. »

« Whether it works or not, you'll have fun playing it; lots of fun; and that, more than anything, is why you should buy it. »

« It works beautifully. »

« Be careful should you choose to pick this up, it has a nasty habit of making addicts out of your family members that normally don’t care for games. »

« A simple idea brilliantly executed. Perfect for newcomers to gaming. »

« However, if you're looking for another fix of Nintendo's knack for genius game design - with the added benefit of potential brain flexing thrown in - you owe it to yourself to check this out. »

« if you don't want to read my very long review, long review short, although claiming this helps "improve your brain age" is debatable, overall, this game is pretty entertaining for what it offers and is unique coming from nintendo games. (shouldn't be too much of a surprise honestly) onto the long review. engageability; i find myself playing this game almost every day ever since someone's mentioned it. the more you play, the more training sessions you unlock. the sudoku puzzles are quite fun. i also recommend showing this game to a friend, if they're interested (if not, you can just quietly chuckle at them for failing and hesitating on simple math problems) gameplay; the training sessions are barebones, but it's simple and sweet, from math calculations, to syllable counting, reading out loud, and memorizations. if you don't like those, you can just play some regular sudoku. achievement; this game's aim is to train the brain to keep your precious, valuable mind from aging too fast. you might start out on a brain age that's undesirable like 60-80, but the more you play, the better you reach your desired brain age (the max is 20) i somewhat doubt the legitimacy of it and unsure on HOW accurate it is, but it's somewhat plausible. but who knows? i'm no doctor kawashima! cons; now for where the game kind of falls. starting off with the most prominent; the voice and writing system recognition. we'll first start with the writing system. with writing numbers, it isn't too bad, some minor hiccups, but with letters and words, it gets messy, it's almost like you'll need a new writing system to fix the problems. you write a 'b' but the game recognizes it as a "D" or just doesn't at all. the voice recognition is also finicky, but to be fair, it WAS 2000s, so i guess i can give it the benefit of the doubt. if you have the option where you can speak or cannot speak, usually, choose the "i cannot speak" otherwise you'll be saying stuff like this; "blue" "BLUE" "BLUUUUUE" lastly, the fact you have to earn stamps to unlock more training sessions is a little miserable, the first set of training sessions may get boring pretty fast due to its low number, so you really got to dedicate yourself by coming everyday (or cheat, but that's kind of defeating point of this game) other stuff; now with the negative things out of the way, here are some other things i like about this game, starting with the music. they did a pretty good job with the music, with these synths and robotic sounds. i like the customization of things, such as your signature and designing your own stamp (which comes later after you've played a while) another thing i like is how the game helps you ease in into the drawing recognition system pretty well by inputting your birthdate, etc. conclusion; this game is pretty interesting, coming from nintendo, it's an idea i like, especially with this generation today. it's something different and unique, which shouldn't be surprising as nintendo likes to innovate. does this game really improve your brain? i don't know, but this game is quite engaging to me, i'd recommend to try it out for a few days. »

« Fun relaxing, the DSIWare versions of these games were great when you could still get them. »

« If you are old and boring you will love this game. Good thing I am both. The entries in the series are mostly indistinguishable so you're better off going with the most recent adaptation. »

« DISCLAIMER: If you are going to play this game. Play it simply for fun. Because it will not increase your brain's ability. There was even a law suit over this. Other than that, yeah it is a fun game, but won't make you smarter or keep your brain healthy. If you want to keep your brain healthy, cardio exercise is the way to go. Also dedicate yourself within your field. »

« Dr Kawashima`s Brain Training is more than a game. Its puzzles are challenging and motivating. Especially if you`re a fan of Sudoku, you will have a lot of fun. Very addictive! »

« Brain Age is entertaining at the very beginning, I was really into doing my brain age check (3 random exercises that put your brain to the test and depending on your skill it gives you a score), you can see results even the second day of your check, and that's kind of promising, the thing is that current studies say that still there's no real evidence that you gain something by playing this kind of games so lets you get that aside. Gameplay wise, the puzzles are fun at least when you start the game but they became repetitive really quickly, also I don't know if it was just me or my 3DS but I had a hard time when it came to registering my voice or writing letters, so at least a third of the puzzles malfunctioned on my "playthrough". It's hard to recommend Brain Age, its a game for quick plays and time passing, it starts fun but ends like a chore, kind of. »

« this game makes me feel dumb :( ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ »

« To enjoy Brain Age you may have to learn to write again, and that almost reduces the entire experience to frustration. The Good: Nice ideas for an innovative dual screen use; good time comparing graphs and drawings with other users; sketching individual stamps is great; funny interaction with doctor Kawashima! Sudoku. The Bad: Sometimes it just can't recognize your handwriting, and losing points for that is EXTREMELY frustrating; graphs are limited to one month per time, so you can't follow your progress in a long term; normal and hard modes are mixed in one graph, making your average fall when you try the hard mode. Good brain training programs, an overall delightful bright sound and the funny doctor's head floating around the screen don't keep Brain Age from being frustrating. The major problem here is the not-always-good handwriting recognizing system. Every now and then you'll find yourself scratching the screen here and there while watching the time going by without being understood; or being misunderstood, resulting in lost points anyway. In a nutshell, the pieces fall apart because of a structural defect. A little extra encouragement would have been nice too--like giving prizes for reaching higher age levels or completing sudoku--but it's not there. Add to that the disheartening mix between normal and hard modes in the graphs generation and we've got more problems than qualities. On the other hand some training programs like Low to High and Head Count and some tests from the brain age check feature like Connect Maze work pretty fine and are well-executed ideas, but that only sum up for a final disappointment feeling. In the end there's only a bitter taste in your mouth because it's easy to recognize a good opportunity wasted under technical issues. »