Brain Age Two: Train Your Brain in Just Minutes a Day

'Brain training' is not generally what most people think about when they are playing computer or video games. These forms of interactive entertainment offer a great way to relax, but rarely are the popular titles associated with helping you 'think' better. Even rarer still is a highly successful game that builds it is whole premise around 'training your brain.' However, Brain Age, offered on the Nintendo DS handheld gaming system, is exactly this.

Instead of shooting and aliens and monsters, exploring lost fortresses and dungeons, or racing different vehicles at breakneck speeds, Brain Age Two has the player trying to solve different 'thinking' puzzles and engaging in other 'brainy' activities. What? How could this be fun? When I first read about this game, and its predecessor, I thought it sounded like a novel idea, but one that would certainly not be very popular. However, time has proved me wrong, and recently received a copy of Brain Age Two for my Nintendo DS.

The whole idea of this game is to train your brain and thus lower its 'age' through a variety of fun exercises. Sudoku, memory games, illusions, math, puzzles, spelling, and even music are all incorporated into many different memory games. When you first start Brain Age Two, you take a fun test to determine the 'age' of your brain. Then, whenever you play the game, you can take part in different training games to help your brain get younger, and take different test to see if you are succeeding in lowering the 'age' of your brain. It becomes really quite fun, and the mini-games, while ranging from easy (sign finder anyone?) to complex (memorizing 25 random digits in 5 different rows within two minutes?) all offer a nice break from more 'traditional' games. The games all work wonderfully with the little stylus and touch pad on the Nintendo DS, and the little animated Japanese doctor is a hilarious touch.