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Personal Tech

Game review

By JOSH KORR
Published June 12, 2006

Brain Age

Company: Nintendo

System: Nintendo DS

Price: $19.99

Rating: E for Everyone

Grade: A

Brain Age is a remarkable little cartridge. With Nintendo's marketing hype, it has the potential to bring older folks into the video game fold. And if Nintendo was smart and altered the target of its hype, the game could land in every classroom in America.

Not bad for one of the most simplistic games ever made.

Brain Age is a collection of puzzles and brain teasers that purports to "train your brain." You have to quickly do a series of basic calculations you write the answers on the Nintendo DS' touch screen; watch a pattern of numbers for a few seconds and then remember their order; track the number of people quickly going in and out of a house. The game includes a bunch of Sudoku puzzles. When you complete each of the short segments, a neuroscientist (well, his head) tells you how the problems "activate your prefrontal cortex" or another part of your brain. These comments are silly, but they're an effective, simple way of reassuring the player that the activity is worthwhile.

This premise is ingenious because for older people, who will find the tasks pretty easy, Brain Age isn't a "brain trainer" - it's a video game trainer. Each puzzle reflects one aspect of modern video games. The calculations force you to make snap decisions and track more than one thing at once; as you solve one problem, the next shows up below. Another task has you look at a bunch of numbers and quickly say how many are of a certain color or are rotating or sliding; this parallels games where you have to pick a small target or item out of a detailed background.

All the while a scientist is telling you it's okay and healthy to be playing a video game. That's a brilliant way to cultivate a new audience.

But Nintendo shouldn't stop there. Brain Age does have the potential to be a true brain trainer, but for an unintended audience: kids.

Brain Age is a perfect teaching tool. It presents multiplication tables and basic math as a game. It asks players to read aloud (I've read passages from the Declaration of Independence, Walden and The Scarlet Letter). It makes you count syllables. And it puts a stamp on a calendar each day you practice - an easy way for teachers to make sure students have done the assignments.

If I were Nintendo, I'd pitch Brain Age to every major school district in the country. I'd offer to tailor the games to specific ages or grades. If I were a superintendent, I'd be looking for any way to motivate my students to learn math and reading. What kid wouldn't want to play a video game as homework? How could any parent or politician criticize a blood-free video game that helps their children learn?

And if I were a 10-year-old, I'd ask my school to give me Brain Age as homework. After all, the faster I finished my daily brain training, the longer I'd get to play Mario Kart during "homework" time.

- JOSH KORR, Times staff writer. Josh Korr can be reached at jkorr@sptimes.com Read his video game blog at www.sptimes.com/blogs/videogames/.

[Last modified June 9, 2006, 12:20:27]