Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain?
CONSOLE: This game is for the Nintendo DS or DS Lite.
PRICE: £16.99 Amazon, Around £10 Ebay, £20 Game. This isn't really a bad price for what you are getting.
WEBSITE: http://braintraining1.nintendo.com.au/ (For more information this is a good site to visit)
PLAYERS: You can have 4 people store their information, or there is the quick play option where you can simply have a go at the exercises and not store anything.
WHAT DOES IT DO? Brain Training has been designed to exercise and stimulate your brain. The makers believe that if you carry out certain exercises or tasks each day then you will hopefully train your brain to retain more information and become cleverer. Just as you exercise your body and muscles to become fitter, this allows you to exercise your brain to improve your performance.
Your ultimate goal is to reach the youngest brain age possible. The best
age for your brain to be is 20.
GETTING STARTED: The game allows you to input your details, ie your name, age etc. This means that each time you go to play the game the information will be saved and you can monitor your progress.
The first thing you are asked to do is take the brain age test. The chances are on your first go your brain age will be quite high. This seems to be the case for everyone I know who has done this. Its nothing to worry about, you can soon get your brain in shape.
So how does it test your brain? Well it will test you using three different exercises. It will ask if you are able to read out loud. This is good because you may be on a train or somewhere very noisy. If you can, then 1 of the exercises will include how fast you can read a passage. If you are not able to talk out loud then the tests will be 1) memory, how many words can you remember in 3 minutes 2) Numbers, you will answer questions such as "how many numbers are spinning", " how many numbers are black" etc. 3) You must join the following circles together in order i.e A to 1 to B to 2 etc etc
THE EXERCISES: When you begin your daily training there is a limited amount of exercises you can do. As the days go by and you progress you will begin to unlock a couple more programmes.
The exercises vary from mathematical equations to reading aloud. It will test a variety of areas and you will certainly find your weaknesses.
The exercises include - Calculations x 20 - Calculations x 100 - Reading aloud - Syllable count
As time progresses you will open the Triangle Math programme, Head Count and Time Lapse. The head count exercise will offer you the option of easy or hard. Let me tell you, the hard one is very very hard. It is virtually impossible to keep up.
Each exercise will offer a high score or best time option. It will only record your first score, so no matter how many times a day you play it you can not keep improving your score.
WHAT ELSE DOES IT OFFER: Once you have completed all the tasks for one day you can put a stamp on the date,so you can keep track of how you are doing. After so many days you can design your own stamp.
Some days Dr Kawashima may ask you what you had for breakfast, he will then ask you what you had for breakfast 7 days ago to test your memory.
He may ask you to draw a picture of a bulldog, or the mona lisa. He will then compare your pictures to his, making sure you have pointed out the main parts that you should have.
If you are bored of the brain training exercises you can always try your hand at Sudoku. This game offers tutorials and easy and hard options, and you can even turn cheat mode on if you are new to Sudoku.
ADVANTAGES: Will keep you entertained for a week or two. Quite fun to go back to now and again. There are charts/graphs that you can use to compare scores with your friends. It remembers all your scores and the information you put into it.
It is very easy to use. You simply use a very light and thin plastic pen shaped tool to touch your answers on the screen.
DISADVANTAGES: Can get a bit tedious and sometimes even frustrating. Once you reach your target brain age you can keep training however I found it a bit boring because I couldn't keep improving. I might wait a few months and then go back and train my brain. I'm not sure if your brain age gets better because you simply remember the exercises and get into the habit of doing them, or whether it actually exercises your brain.
RECOMMEND? I would definitely recommend this game. Me and boyfriend both enjoyed playing this game when we first bought it so both males and females can enjoy Brain Training. It can be quite challenging though its quite good fun, especially when you get all the high scores :)
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
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