The first reaction I had towards this game when I heard of its release was: "A game with math in it?"
Brain Age is part of Nintendo's new "Touch Generations" lineup. These "games", if you can call them that, is meant to get more non-gamers to play the DS. These "games" tend to steer away from any of the already established genres and standards for video games these days. For example, to play brain age, you hold the screen vertically! HOW CRAZY IS THAT???
Brain Age is being advertised as "training for your brain" it supposedly slows down the aging of your brain, and causes your brain to function better. Although my brain age has gone down from 86 (first time playing) to 21 (20 being the best) I haven't seen a noticeable increase in my ability to think, but that is not the important thing. The important thing is the game experience itself
Brain Age consists of three main parts. The Brain Age Check, Training, and Sudoku. Brain Age Check is just what it sounds like, it tests your "Brain Age" so that you can see if the game is having an effect on your brain age.
Training, as the name suggests, trains your brain through a set of mini games. You start out with only a few, and as you train your brain more and more, you can unlock more. Some examples of the minigames include Calculations x20 (20 simple math calculations, basic operations), Calculations x100, Syllable Count, Low to High, etc. etc. After each minigame, a graphic depicting a mode of transport (walking, biking, train, car, and jet) to show you how fast you completed each game, with the added penalties from your mistakes. Then, a graph is shown comparing your results with result from previous times you have played.
The last part of the game is Sudoku. You may have heard of the puzzle game, seeing as how to whole world is going through some sort of Sudoku craze right now. If you been living under a rock for the past couple of months, I will explain the game. Basically, 9 3x3 grids are arranged in a 3x3 square, in each individual small 3x3 grid, you must fill in the numbers 1-9, but, you cannot have a repeat number in a vertical line, or a horizontal one. Sounds sort of complicated, but it is actually quite simple to pick up.
Although the game is very innovative in its use of the DS special features, it is not without its faults. For example, many a time you a shouting a word into the microphone during the Stroop Test (look it up on Wikipedia if you don't know what it is), and the game erroneously registers the word as a different one, causing you to make mistake that you didn't actually make. As well, the handwriting recognition isn't too great either. Sometimes, if you have messy writing, the game will mess up the numbers you are writing down, and you will lose time for mistakes you didn't make. Thankfully, these issues do not come up often, and the game can still be enjoyed.
Which brings us to the next issue of the game, the gameplay. While the game is fine for short bursts every 2 days or so, I found it extremely irksome to be playing the game each day and completing all the minigames available. So if you are like me and cannot stand repeated monotonous tasks, take the game's slogan to heart and only play the game for minutes a day.
This game is innovated and accentuates many of the DS's features. If you can get past the occasional glitch (for lack of a better word) in the game, you are going to have a very enjoyable and educational game to take with you on the go. And for around 20 dollars in most stores, it is a great pick for the budget-conscious among you.