Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain? for DS

As my father recently celebrated his 80th birthday, and is a stroke victim, he receives regular health check ups. At his most recent, he received what for him was shattering news; the doctor fully expects him to be around to celebrate his 90th in 2019. Unfortunately, my father's skeletal structure has aged rather faster than the rest of him, meaning he doesn't get out as much as he would like. This frustration doesn't exactly make him a joy to be around at times.    

While I did ponder the gift of assisted suicide, I finally concluded a less drastic solution might be to buy my father a Nintendo DSi in the hope that it helps him while away a few hours. I didn't particularly anticipate my father would be into Driller Killer (or whatever particularly gruesome game is hit of the moment), so his first dabble into the world of gaming is going to be with Dr Kawashima's Brain Training. I'm currently having a bit of a play with the console and a couple of games, so I can explain to him how it works when he receives his gift.

What's in a name?

The first surprise is finding out that some marketers or copyright lawyers have made themselves useful. In the UK the game is called Dr Kawashima's Brain Training. How Old is Your Brain? while in the US, it is called Brain Age. Same game, different front cover.

Unfortunately, the element I find rather ageist and slightly distasteful is present in both versions of the title. The "how old is your brain" or "Brain Age" element suggests the elderly brain is not as useful as a young brain. I'm sure we can all cite examples of young and old where this ruling doesn't apply. I would have preferred the scoring to be based on some kind of agility and speed, rather than negative stereotyping.

Anyway, in this young world of Dr Kawashima, apparently you reach nirvana when you achieve a brain age of 20. My beloved is hoping that should I ever attain this brain age, it won't lead me to start chatting up young women and partying until dawn, or lose me the skills of using cutlery and conversation.  

OK, rant over, what's the game about? 
 
Basically, the Brain Training game encourages you to undertake a little daily brain workout with a few games to stimulate and quicken your brain. At the end of your workout, you can try the "How Old is your Brain?" test, to discover whether the training is improving your agility.

The game also takes advantage of the sound and writing recognition programs in the Nintendo DS. This means you use the magic pen to write your answers on the pad; and the Nintendo recognises it. I know some reviewers have mentioned that the voice recognition doesn't work particularly successfully, although I have not had that problem.

Likewise, number recognition is pretty good for me, although I have to remember not to lift the pen off the paper, or it won't recognise the number.

My problem comes with the system recognising letters, my handwriting is appalling, and I have to refer to the rather handy guide that comes with the game, and tells you how to write the letters so the Nintendo DS can understand it.

Of course, these little computer glitches can negatively influence upon your "how old is your brain?" score. The cynic in me notes that as you learn to work round these little glitches, you become faster at the games, and so your score improves regardless of whether the "brain training" actually helps.  

One nice touch which keeps it fresh, is that as you use the Brain Train a little more regularly, new options open up to you, and there are new games to try.

There is a separate section of Sudoko, something my parents enjoy completing, and so this part should sucker them in. I don't see the attraction myself.  
 
The Games

I certainly like the simple mathematic game, where you have to answer simple sum questions as quickly as possible. There is anything between 20-100 questions to answer. I've always been great with mental arithmetic, and quickly improved my speed by calculating the answer to the next question, while writing down the answer for the current question.

I'm less comfortable with memorising the four letter words; you have two minutes to read a long list of words, and three minutes to write down as many as possible. My list of remembered words is pathetically short (and not helped by the little problem I have with the machine reading my writing). I'm rather better at the "low to high" memory game, where you have to remember where the numbers are in a grid. Words and letters definitely cause me more problems to numbers.

A word game, I'm rather better at is the colours game, where you have to say the colour of the word, not the colour the word says. I'm back down with a bump with the syllable game, where you have to write the number of syllables in a phrase. I can do it, but I'm still slow.

Obviously, the good challenge with the game is that there is room for improvement, and I'm sure everyone's first play with the game gives an elderly age score. I'm currently moving down middle age now.

I'm less happy with the chatty De Kawashima, who rambles on a bit and asks you what you have eaten for dinner, and such like. I'd prefer a more clinical doctor, rather than one that attempts to befriend you. That said, the game instructions are clear to understand, although again, I found they were explained too often, meaning I was soon rolling my eyes and flipping through them. 

Summing up

I think Dr Kawashima's Brain Training is perfect for my parents, as I do worry about them getting enough mental stimuli on a daily basis. Obviously, an active brain in the elderly can help keep things like dementia at bay.          

I'm less certain that your average child or young adult will be terribly excited by the game, but they will probably have the occasional dabble. While, the game wasn't perfect for me (the repetitive Dr K doesn't help), at least I can't complain that the games aren't well described and prepared, an attribute that will no doubt be appreciated by my parents.
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cr01 asserts his right to be associated as the author of this review -2009-

Yey, another Epinions virgin breaking moment: my very first game review :o)