Doctor Kawishima's Brain Training: How Old is Your Brain Review

Hands up to all of those that thought Nintendo had finally lost it when talk of their Brain Training series first emerged. Competing against the technically more proficient PSP in the handheld stakes, many like myself predicted nothing but doom and gloom for Nintendo as it walked into the horizon, muttering about the need for videogames to be more appealing to other demographics, such as females and stranger yet... the elderly.

Over a year since its introduction throughout Japan and with sales passing 2.3 million units in that region alone, stories of Japanese pensioners queuing up around Akihibara to get the latest copy of Brain Training proves one thing, never question Nintendo.

So finally the wait is over as Doctor Kawishima's Brain Training: How Old is Your Brain, the first of many Brain Age titles, finds a release in Europe. Containing a number of different challenges, ranging from quick-fire multiplication to reading out passages from classic literary works from the likes of Bronte and Dickens, Brain Age essentially keeps your brain active by completing the tasks as accurately and quickly as possible. Progress through the game requires you to return to the game daily, unlocking new tasks as you do and hopefully decreasing your Brain Age to the optimum figure of 20.

The big question surrounding the entire experience is just how beneficial the game actually is. On both sides professionals from the field have argued the points for and against. Although I missed out on a degree in neurology, my opinion on the title is that regular, short mental activities such as those contained have to be good exercise for your brain - but then again so is reading a good novel, completing the crossword in the newspaper or buying a puzzle compendium, all of which cost substantially less then this, admittedly budget priced, DS title.

What you're paying for is the structure in which the tasks are presented; challenged to return every day and complete at least one task, Brain Training tracks your progress on each activity and presents this via a handy graph to indicate whether you're performance is getting better or worse. The gimmick is also the actual "Brain Age", worked out by the speed and accuracy in which you complete certain tasks, indicated by accolades varying from Walking Speed to Rocket Speed. The game provides the ability for up to four players to store their progress and compare scores on each of the challenges, which is definitely the best way to play as you compete ferociously to better your score and prove once and for all who is the most intelligent (ok so perhaps its not that conclusive, but it beats filling out the MENSA forms). All of these elements lend an addictive quality to Doctor Kawishima's Brain Trianing: How Old is Your Brain, which wouldn't necessarily be there with a puzzle book - a crucial aspect when it comes to ensuring you return daily to stimulate your mind.

The hand-recognition software seems to be well up for the job, instantly recognising the assortment of vastly different styles that we've put to the test; occasionally such issues as writing a "9" the wrong way will cause a problem, however, this is very much a specific problem that can be easily addressed by remembering the correct input method.

As expected Doctor Kawishima's Brain Training: How Old is Your Brain is a wildly different type of "game" to those that typically adorn TVG pages. What you should know is that Brain Training is far more entertaining and addictive then we initially thought. We'll leave talk of whether the game is beneficial or not to the experts; however, it's easy to see how the game achieved such success throughout Japan and you have to applaud Nintendo for having the vision to stretch outside the boundaries.