One of these games is Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day. It has the unmistakable stink of education all over it, but that's overpowered by the fun of it all. Some simple math problems, reading classic texts, and taking a few tests to determine your "Brain Age". The lower the number, the sharper your mind is, or so the program says.

First time through, the program told me I was 80 years old. After a few days, it was 46. I scored a 22 once but I'm beginning to think it was a fluke. Why do I keep playing a game that every day finds a new way to tell me I'm stupid?

As a 19 year old, I would've laughed right in your face if you told me in ten years I'd be buying a game where the fun comes from solving math problems. But nonetheless, almost every day I play for about 10-15 minutes, memorizing number sequences, solving simple math problems, and drawing pictures from memory. WHY?

Gameplay

The game does a good job of keeping the exercises fresh. There's a pretty good selection of drills here, including Calculations X 20, calculations X 100, reading along, triangle math, time lapse, and more. My favorite it called "low to high" , where the screen flashes up a few numbers, and you have to repeat the pattern tapping the numbers in order from low to high. And for those looking to work out your brain outside of the training drills, there are tons of sudoku puzzles.

Most of the games use the touch screen to input your answers, and you hold the DS like a book. It's strange at first, and the handwriting recognition is spotty at times. For a few of the tests you say your answer out loud into the mic. sound recognition can be a problem. Seems as though the DS can't really understand you when you say "blue" especially. There's an easy workaround though, just say "lue". Like blue without the b. It's really almost all math, with just a little bit of reading and recognition. I would've liked more variety in the puzzles, it's a little to math heavy.

After you're done with the exercises you can take the Brain Age test, where they throw 3 random tests at you to determine you're brain age, the lowest and best being 20 years old. It's fun to do well and a little humbling to score badly.

Is it fun?

This is one of those titles where the entire value of the thing lies in the playability. The ability to bring you back again and again. Maybe it's because it tracks how often you play, or that it tracks your progress. Maybe it's because you don't want the Max Hedroom-esque Japanese doctor to ask you where you've been ("Has it really been three days since you've stopped by?" or "Aren't you a trooper for coming by everyday like this!"). But for me, watching my brain age drop and my results in the test rise gave me enough reason to keep playing day after day. Though after a week or two, you'll probably play every other day, then every few days, etc. After a few weeks of playing you start to get bored with the exercises provided.

But I'm not getting any younger and if playing a videogame for ten minutes can stave off dementia, who am I to turn that away? Even if the science behind that idea is suspect at best.

Is it worth the time & money?

For the price point of $19.99 you really can't beat it. It's novel, and it's something different. And with such a low price if you get bored after a few weeks you won't feel like you got ripped off. There's a good amount of exercises (though a bit too much math) and a ton of sudoku puzzles. The novelty will likely wear off a bit sooner than you'd like but it's still fulfilling. Even after the novelty has work off, the sudoku makes it worth the purchase. Why buy the Sudoku standalone game if you get it here plus all the brain age stuff?

6 out of 10

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