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Great Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: April 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game with a number of doubts, but since it was $20, I decided to give it a try, and I am glad I did. The game is surprisingly fun, with a number of different exercises for you to do that you actually do need to concentrate on to complete.

As for voice and handwriting recognition problems, neither I nor any of my friends who have played my copy have had any problems whatsoever. There is the occasional error that occurs, but that only happens when I try to hurry and don't enunciate or write properly. It's likely that those having problems with the system are trying to speak too quickly, and are writing too sloppily for the game to recognize. Take your time and enunciate properly, as well as write out the words/numbers clearly, and there will be no problems.

Excellent "game"; I've been playing it everyday since I got it five days ago (admittedly not that far back) and it's still just as refreshing as the first day. And I can see where the exercises could indeed help "train your brain". The simple math exercises and memorization/tracking games require you to concentrate, and also require that you think quickly, both of which are incredibly valuable.

Whether or not this will translate back into real life is debatable, but given the low price (in terms of both time and money) it is worth a shot. At the very least your ability to do simple arithmetic will improve - which is sorely needed in today's age of calculators; it is often shocking to me how difficult people find it to calculate how much to tip, how much change they should receive, etc.

And finally, the Sudoku puzzles themselves are worth the $20 purchase. I hadn't even heard of Sudoku prior to buying this game - apparently I've been living under a rock the past couple of years - and I was addicted after playing a few puzzles. The first ten or so puzzles are pretty easy, but naturally they get progressively harder, and there are over 100 puzzles, so these will last you a while. And the Nintendo DS's interface is PERFECT for Sudoku. The ability to easily write in "potential" answers as notes along with the ability to easily correct errors and erase numbers is lovely.

In conclusion, this is a great game, and very much worth the paltry $20 price tag it is being sold at. It is fun, intuitive to control, may increase your ability to think clearly and effectively, definitely will increase your ability to do simple math, and has Sudoku; you can't go wrong.

The only game you can get your Mom to play

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: April 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I picked up Brain Age, not really knowing what to expect. I've had it for a day now and have been very pleasantly surprised. Don't listen to the 1 star idiots who claim the microphone is terrible - just be in a quite room, and don't scream and it will work. I really enjoy the Sudoku puzzles too (they're SO addicting) so I won't need that clumsy old book anymore!

But the best part? Anyone can play it because of it's simplicity. Even your parents! My mom got totally into this game (Try "High and Low", its really competetive!). So just get the game, it's great!

Flex that gray matter

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: April 25, 2006
Author: Amazon User

When education is entertaining, it'll be a cold day in hell. Learning algebra, memorizing vocabulary, and writing essays will probably never be fun. But using and training your brain? Could that be useful and entertaining enough to warrant the creation of a video game? Japanese neurologist Ryuta Kawashima, M.D. thinks so. That's why he engineered the budget-priced Nintendo DS brain toy, Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day!

Brain Age isn't really what I'd consider a video game. It's a tool, a training exercise, and a piece of software that stimulates your brain and tests your responses. There aren't really high scores, there's no story, and there aren't even characters besides the face of Dr. Kawashima, who kindly tells you how to complete each exercise. Really, if you look at it realistically, Brain Age isn't a game at all-it's a tool similar to an educational computer program. If that doesn't excite you, I'm not surprised, but giving Brain Age a chance will reveal its very interesting elements.

The point of Brian Age is to provoke and make use of the prefrontal cortex in your brain. If you didn't know (and I don't expect most of you to know anything about neural science), the prefrontal cortex is what lets you use stored knowledge to make decisions in any situation. Quoting the game's official site, it is the "control tower" of your brain. The site also says that your "`practical intelligence,' or ability to apply stored knowledge to your everyday reality, depends upon how well your prefrontal cortex functions." The prefrontal cortex is "the foundation of creativity, memory, communication, and self-control." It's been proven, through Dr. Kawashima's research of the brain's activity and blood flow, that the exercises found in Brain Age can increase the ability to use the prefrontal cortex, thus sharpening your brain.

Whether this "training" is an engrossing experience or not depends on your willingness to do math problems or play color-recognition exercises. There are several different exercises, some of them being much more entertaining than others. I, personally, was a sucker for "Calculations 20X", which is a set of 20 simple math problems. The goal of "Calculations" (which also comes in a "100X" flavor) is to complete these math problems as quickly as possible by writing the answer to each equation on the touch screen. You'd be surprised how tricky the game can be-seeing "8X8" and then "8+8" in quick succession can be very confusing and will require you to stop and think for a second before answering. Other fun games include "Head Count", where you count the amount of people entering and exiting a building, and "Lowest to Highest", which is an interesting take on simple memory games.

The game I didn't like so much was the "Stroop Test". The "Stroop Test" is a common brain game where the names of colors (like "black" and "yellow") are written in a font color different than what the word actually represents. For example, "blue" might be written in a red font, and there is a slight struggle when saying the color of the font rather than the actual word. The microphone does a terrible job picking up the pronunciation of different colors, and I personally had a really tough time with "blue". This game is actually the only game that does a poor job with recognition of voice or stylus control. Every other game is spot-on.

The point of playing these games is to determine your "Brain Age", or the level that your brain thinks at. A healthy Brain Age is 20, which means that your brain operates at a 20-year-old's level, which is evidently the optimal level. Perhaps it's because 20-year-olds haven't yet destroyed their brain with legal alcohol use, but that's a different story.

There aren't really graphics or sound effects to mention here. The on-screen visuals are mostly numbers and words without much color, and the backgrounds are all gray or white. Each figure is pretty simple, like the little figures that represent people in "Head Count". Technically, nothing looks bad, but Brain Age is probably the last game ever that will wow you in terms of production values.

Even when the exercises get old, 100 sudoku puzzles don't. Sudoku, for those of you unfamiliar with addictive number puzzles, is a game where nine columns and nine rows make 81 squares, and the goal of the game is to fill in a square with a number from 1-9 without repeating any single number in a column or row. There is only one solution to each puzzle, and some of the puzzles can take anywhere from five minutes to an hour to complete, depending on your skill and the amount of numbers granted to you when you begin the puzzle. Sudoku is difficult to do at first but pretty quickly you'll be hooked, and this additional game alone makes Brain Age a fantastic package. Not to mention, a sudoku PSP game was just released and costs more than $20 WITHOUT all of the brain games!

Is Brain Age worth buying? Definitely! It's only $20, and I will vouch for Dr. Kawashima that Brain Age does make use of your brain. I had a headache after about an hour of gameplay the first day I got it, but that was mostly because I was replaying "Calculations" and trying to get a lightning-fast time. Doing 800 math problems is bound to do that to your head! Brain Age, if nothing else, is a gadget that further proves the DS' originality and innovation. For that reason alone, it's worth checking out.

Not a game, but fun anyway

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: July 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Let's get one thing straight; math isn't a game. Nevertheless, this "game" is fun to play. The addition of Sukoku is nice, and the game seems to get progressively harder as you play. I had some trouble with the mic during the brain age check (I learned to speak softer), and there is certainly some getting used to. For instance, the game didn't recognize my 8's (it thought they were 6's), but I learned to write them so the game would understand. Overall, this seems to be a solid title and $20 bucks is a great price. I highly recommend it.

Fun, but Frustrating

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: December 27, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Brain Age is very fun, and most of the games are operable and will show user improvement over time. However, the handwriting recognition is awful; if one has poor handwriting, responses will regularly get marked wrong on questions answered correctly, or the user may struggle with getting the game to accept answers. That makes the game very frustrating, as it gives a false impression of the so-called brain age.

Check the discussions on Amazon: voice and handwriting recognition problems exist for others. Perhaps training tools or a guide to getting the system to recognize and accept one's responses should be considered for any future releases.

Good brain practice

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: February 12, 2007
Author: Amazon User

It's a fun way to exercise your brain. It is mostly math, some tricky color recognition (which, on our Nintendo DS, doesn't seem to work 100%, it has a problem recognizing the word "blue"), reading, and syllable count and Sudokus. I think there is still more to it but we haven't delved into all its depth yet.
Definitely a worthwhile game.

Quickly gets old

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: June 09, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I got this game a few months ago and have played it only eight times since. It was easy to forget about my daily practice time and leave it at the back of my games. For one thing, the music and graphics are boring. It's not that I expect those things to be great for something like this, but they didn't improve the feel of the game. Also, the game doesn't always correctly identify my letters and numbers when I'm writing and my voice when I'm speaking. (Yes, I have had a problem with the word "blue" as other reviewers have, and also almost all the other colors at one point.) The sudoku doesn't excite me either. (But that's just me; I sometimes like sudoku, but I hardly ever do it.) I realize I sound very picky, and if you can get past these things then the game is fine.

So I had pretty much given up on the whole "train your brain" thing until I played my cousin's copy of "Big Brain Academy." "Big Brain" has color everywhere, better sound, cute graphics, more games, and a better way of mapping progress. "Brain Age" does have graphs and lists of best times, but "Big Brain" lets you earn medals and its only graph (so far as I know) is a cool little chart that shows your strengths and weaknesses every time you play. I could definitely get into "Big Brain Academy" more than I ever got into "Brain Age." Kids will like "Big Brain" more because of its colors and sounds. If you're looking to "train your brain," skip over "Brain Age" and go straight to "Big Brain Academy."

Toys for adults

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: January 26, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Brain age is one of two games I currently own for the Nintendo DS Lite. I really enjoy this game. Here are some features and what I like about them.

The Daily Training:
When you do your daily training you get a stamp for each day. The more stamps you have more training exercises are available. The training exercises include:
~Calculations x20 (multiplication table and simple addition/ substraction to 20, there are 20 you have to complete)
~Calculations x100 (just like the Cal x20 but there are 100 problems. I really find the math great and for someone older like me its a great review of the multiplication table as its not something I use everyday.)
~Reading Aloud (passages from Classic Novels that you have to read as fast as you can, not my favorite, could really do without this exercise, not very fun)
~Low to High (numbers appear on the screen for a breif moment in different combinations and you have to guess where they were placed on the screen from lowest to highest, quite entertaining, so far the most I could guess was 8 numbers)
~Syllable Count (counting syllables in sentences on the screen, I really like this one, another great review of basic principles)
~Head Count (guess the number of people in the house after they go in and out of it, very fun, the most people that can be in the house on the normal mode is 9)
~Triangle math (math problems, you have to calculate left side then right side then add or subtract them from/to each other)
~Time Lapse (2 clocks with different times and you have to figure out how much time passed between the clock on the top and the bottom, never knew how challenging this could be!)
~Voice Calculation (its like Cal x20/Cal x100, but instead of writing the number you say it, the answers so far for me never go passed 9)

Brain Check:
You are working for a brain age of 20, which is suppose to be the best and most active (which you can achieve through training), you complete 3 random tests to get your Brain Age Number. The brain age check exercises include
~Stroop Test (colored color words appear on the screen and you have to say the color of the word not read the word, for exemple the word Yellow appears on the screen and the color of the font is Red your response should be RED)
~Word Memory (you are presented with a list of words and have 3 minutes to memorize them, then 2 minutes two write down as many as you can remember, the only con is that the words are limited to 4 letters)
~Speed Counting (you count out loud from 1 to 120 as fast as you can)
~Connect Maze (There are 13 letters and numbers and you have to connect them alternating between letters and numbers A to 1 to B to 2 to C to 3 etc.)
~Number Chruncher (numbers appear on the screen in different colors, and you have questions for exemple how many red #s?)
~Calculations x20 (just like the training)

Some other fun features of the the training side
The game will from time to time ask to draw pictures of certain objects, places, people etc. You do three in a row and then your pictures are compared with the games (if you have more than one user your pictures are compared with the other person's as well)

Sudoku:
Mainly what I bought Brain Age for, there's an easy and intermediate mode with 2 pages full of puzzles, I haven't completed enough of the sudoku yet to uncover the mystery mode (which I'm guessing will be the hard mode)

All in all very entertaining. Some of the screens you have to go through to actually play the game are quite unneccesarry. However, try to pay attention to them, they give you nice tips on hidden ways to access certain features. For exemple if you hold Select and press Brain Age Check instead of getting three random tests you can pick which ones you want to complete.

I highly recommend this game!

Great for us geeks!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: July 22, 2007
Author: Amazon User

It's hard to imagine that doing math problems and reading excerpts from the driest classic literature could be fun, but it actually is! There's just something satisfying about beating your time at doing mental challenges, it makes you feel like you're getting smarter instead of dumber as you age. And as a big fan of sudoku, I love that there's loads of puzzles included. This is especially fun if you have more than one person sharing the same game card so you can have a little friendly competition.

Only two cons: For one, the replayability is limited, since once you've reached a 20-year-old brain age and unlocked all your training programs, it does start to get a little old. For another, the handwriting recognition still isn't perfected--it's highly annoying to get something wrong because it misread your writing, rather than because you were actually wrong. It doesn't happen TOO often though.

One of my favorite Nintendo DS games - It's actually fun

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 14
Date: April 21, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Considering I'm a High School drop-out, I didn't think I'd want to spend 20 dollars on a "game" that has me doing math problems & such.. Although after getting it, I was real pleased by the whole thing overall.

You can unlock new mind games to play if you keep at it every day. Also you can choose if you're right or left handed, which is very convienent.. And trying to beat your score is a good way to waste time without feeling like you're actually wasting time.

The idea is you want to get as close to a 20 year old brain age as possible... Easier said than done. It'll take a lot of practice to get to it.. Right now my best score is a 34. The higher the score, the worse.

*** A NOTE TO PEOPLE CURIOUS OR COMPLAINING ABOUT MICROPHONE USE***

- There is some difficulty in the DS recognizing when you say "Blue" as a previous one-star reviewer stated.. However it's easy to fix.

All you got to do is talk normally - *DON'T YELL AT YOUR DS* - Just talk like you would if someone was sitting right next to you.. And keep the DS about a foot or more away from your face. As long as you're not yelling, it's fine. The microphone is much more sensitive on this game than it is on others.

- Overall... Will Brain Age actually make any of us smarter? I don't know about "smarter".. But it will get us thinking clearer more often. It was the best selling game in Japan, & now it's here for us to enjoy.

And in a country where someone like George W Bush is elected President (twice?!)... We need all the help we can get to make this country thinking clearer.

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