More Brain Training (DS)

Gamecow’s Price	RRP $49.95     Save $4.00 $45.95
Availability
Genre	Role Playing Game: Puzzle
Platform	Nintendo DS
Release Date	05/07/2007
Rated

More Brain Training is a great follow on from Dr.Kawashima’s Brain Training.  This is a great game for almost any age group.  Giving your brain a good work out can only make your life better.

While this is a great game for the younger generation, adults will love this game.  More Brain Training is a great game to play either: while waiting for the kids at school, on the train to work or after the kids have gone to sleep.

Work up a mental sweat! 

More Brain Training (DS) Product Information

Training your brain became a worldwide activity following the launch of Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain? and now over 10 million people globally are currently including it in their daily lives. But, as with any exercise, continual training is required to help stay active and now you can keep on training your brain with the second instalment in the Brain Training franchise, More Brain Training from Dr Kawashima: How Old Is Your Brain? Featuring all new exercises and DS Brain Age Checks, this is set to challenge even the most trained brains.

Inspired by the research of renowned Japanese neuroscientist Dr Kawashima, More Brain Training is designed to help stimulate your brain and challenge memory, math and perception skills. Users can train their brain by exercising for just a few minutes each day, whether on the go or when relaxing.

More Brain Training from Dr Kawashima: How Old Is Your Brain? uses the same format as its predecessor. Held like a book, you are invited to use the unique and intuitive Touch Screen and microphone features of the Nintendo DS as you take ten minutes a day to help your brain stay active with challenging new exercises. All exercises contained in the software are based on easy to execute mathematical, cognitive and language-based tasks.

Players can train their brain through exercises such as Memorise 5 x 5, Speedy Symbols, Correct Change, Days Missing Symbols, Masterpiece Recital or the classic Rock, Paper, Scissors, that features voice recognition.
Other modes include a picture-drawing challenge, a connect-the-dots exercise, and an acrostics activity. More Brain Training will also come with more than 100 new sudoku puzzles.

More Brain Training from Dr Kawashima: How Old Is Your Brain? also features download (Multiplayer) functions that you can enjoy by using the wireless DS Download Play feature. Using a single game card, two to sixteen players can participate in four different exercises together. Also making a welcome return to this new title is the popular numbers game, sudoku.

This is all part of Nintendo's ‘Touch! Generations’ series, that gives you engaging interaction with games that promote production over destruction, contemplation over domination. No complex instructions. No steep learning curves. Play a little. Play a lot. It's up to you.

More Brain Training (DS) Review

Chances are you've already been playing the original Brain Training on the DS. Of course, that means you're likely gagging for something a little more challenging, which is precisely why Japanese neurologist Dr Kawashima has devised this sequel. That and the fact Nintendo wants to flog another 10 trillion copies to mums and grannies everywhere, no doubt.

It probably won't come as too much of a surprise to note that this follow-up operates firmly in the realm of 'If it ain't broke…' territory. True, it's packed with new exercises, a whole slew of brand new Sudoku puzzles and a mildly more engaging multiplayer mode but, ultimately, this is Brain Training with knobs on. As before, things kick off with your inaugural Brain Age Check. Here, you get your first glimpse of the new challenges. For instance, Rock, Paper, Scissors - designed to assess your ability to think on the fly - has you saying either "Rock", "Paper" or "Scissors" into the DS microphone, prompted by the picture and instruction that appears on the left-hand screen.

All training exercises on offer are the usual mixture of word and number puzzles, ranging from the maddeningly difficult Word Blend - where you write down the words that you hear spoken by up to three people simultaneously - to the addictive and very practical Correct Change, in which you have to calculate how much change to give a mythical customer and then select the correct combination of coins using the stylus.

Obviously, a significant part of the first game's meteoric success was its elegantly simplistic interface, spurning any complex button pressing in favour of largely intuitive handwriting and voice recognition support - in other words, it was so simple an OAP could fathom it. Veteran brain trainers will be aware of the kinks in both systems though and it's pleasing to see that Nintendo has fixed some of the more glaring issues this time.

Closing Comments
So, More Brain Training, unsurprisingly, is very much more of the same, only better. Everything you liked about the first game is still here, but it just feels more engaging, more challenging and a more rounded product. If you despised the first title, it’s highly unlikely More Brain Training will tempt you into its fold. However, Brain Training virgins and old-timers should be more than happy with Nintendo’s somewhat incremental evolution here, plus this second helping arrives with that all-important wallet-friendly price tag attached. After a few months of this, your sexy, fit new brain will be thanking you for giving it such an overhaul. So long as it doesn’t find a new body to run off with...

Full review IGN