Dr Kawashima's Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain (Nintendo DS)

I find it keeps me on the ball as far as numerics etc. Although I would say that practice makes perfect. Stop using it and you drop down the rankings. It doesn't make you smarter..If you can't count .. this is not going to help...but it's entertaining!

I bought this for my Christmas DS lite. Since then I've barely missed a day! I'm really enjoying it; a little workout for my brain every day! Unlike other reviewers I have had no problem at all with voice recognition on the famous Stroop test (the one where you have to say the colour a word is written in, rather than the colour the word says - surprisingly tricky!). I'm also having no difficulty with character recognition when writing numbers on the screen. So I've had a wonderful experience with this. If you do have difficulty with either of these it will impact on your game play as the computer will not register your speedy responses and will mark you down (or wrong). I find the animated head (that introduces the games and gives tips), very irritating, but its a small price to pay. The sudoku is an added attraction for me. You get to unlock more challenges the more you play, which certainly keeps up the interest; for me this has the effect of getting me to spend longer and longer on the programme every day as I feel compelled to do every challenge every day. I started with a 'brain age' of 64 (rather worrying!), and after a month, have reached the holy grail - a brain age of 20! Highly recommended. I also love Professor Latyon and the Curious Village and have bought Pandora's Box (but still too engrossed with Brain training to have started it yet).

As far as my health is concerned -taking my Type-1 Diabetes into account of course- I would say that I'm in fairly good trim. I mean I'm not a fitness fanatic like Mr. Motivator, but I do go out for 20-30 minute runs at least 5 days a week, and I try to drink as much water as possible. But according to one Dr. Ryuta Kawashima, exercise is also required for the brain. Yep! If you don't train your brain it'll end up with the beer belly of a 1980's dart player. Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training is a DS game card that was apparently designed to make your mind as sharp as a tack...and as quick as a cartoon character jumping off his or her seat after sitting on one. The Brain Training tour guide begins with Daily Training. First you need to fill in some info, in particular the current date and your date of birth. Then after an initial exam to determine how much belly fat that thing behind your eyes has it's time to start your training. At first you'll only be able to do Calculations x20 and x100 and Reading Aloud, but by collecting stamps by going through these tests every day you can unlock other interesting tests to engage yourself with. For example Triangle Math can be a stern trial with two layers of calculations to do. In general it's a nice setup as it gives you the incentive to come back, day after day, to do the tests; and the numerous graphs allow you to keep up to date with your progress and may even motivate you to work harder...I mean mentally. The tests can be really fun to do, and I've sometimes found the urge to do certain tests twice in a day even though the game will only record the first set. Also I believe they can have a positive effect on your brain. I was pretty good at maths while I was at school, and it showed in the Calculations x20 and x100 tests. After a couple of rusty turns I really started to motor. A lot of times I was actually able to focus my eyes on the next question while I was writing out the answer for the current one, and I've regularly clocked sub 20-second times for Calculation x20. Another test that appeared to show improvements in my head was the appropriately named (no really, it is!) Head Count. I struggled with it at first, but after a few goes my brain picked up on a method to keep count of how many little men were in the house, even when there were some entering and exiting the house at the same time. I didn't enjoy all the tests though. For some reason I've continually struggled to memorize words in the Word Memory test. Those 4-letter words just don't wanna stay in my head, and out of a possible 30 the best I've managed (at the time of writing this review) is only 11. It makes me wanna think of 4-letter words of a different kind! Brain Training can hold game data for up to 4 players. But if you don't want any friends or family recording anything, or they don't wanna take the game too seriously, you can always point them in the direction of Quick Play. Here they can try out the stroop test (saying the colour of the words on screen), some maths problems or a quick Sudoku puzzle. It's a nicely presented mode that gets the player use to the feel of the game, and with no scores recorded here they don't have to worry about putting in an embarrassing performance either. The pressure's off. The final mode to talk about here is Sudoku. For anybody who doesn't know the aim of Sudoku is to fill up all the squares in a 3x3 grid with the numbers 1-9 without having the number appearing twice in any row, column or mini 3x3 grid. It seems like a game aimed at the secretaries who drink Diet Coke on their elevenses; but actually the game is surprisingly addictive. There's a large number of different puzzles to tackle, each one getting progressively harder and somehow managing to drag you in and keep you in until you've successfully completed them. It's actually given me a craving to tackle Sudoku puzzles in newspapers and magazines, although I don't expect that craving to last forever. OK, onto the negatives. I`ve played this game for a good solid month, and I'm not entirely convinced by the accuracy of the Brain Age Check. Some days I perform really well on the test and my score is somewhere in the mid 20's, but then there are days where I perform just as good on the test but only get a score somewhere in the mid 40's, leaving me puzzled as to how the DS card came to such a conclusion. Furthermore I've had the occasional bad day where my thinking was too slow and I gave a few wrong answers, yet I still managed a score in the early 30's. All this has lead to me having a brain age graph of numerous and vigorous up and down points, and has left me uncertain as to what kind of condition my brain is actually in. There are a couple of other flaws to mention as well. When it comes to the microphone the game will sometimes claim you gave the wrong answer during the stroop test, even though you actually and clearly called out the correct answer. It's annoying, but it's even more annoying during the Voice Calculation test when you're trying to pronounce the correct answer of "six." The game thinks you've said "five" or "seven" or "two", but never "six." One time I said "six" to the same question a dozen times and tried pronouncing the number a dozen different ways, but it would still not accept the answer -even though it was correct- and it lead to me gnashing my teeth so heavily I needed replacement dentures afterwards. Also the game doesn't always understand what letters you've tried to write down during the Word Memory test, and can lose you some valuable time whilst you're trying to write down as many words as possible. If you're buying this game boxed and complete then there should be a small booklet in the case showing you how to write the letters on the touch screen so that the game will understand them. But if not you'll be doing a fair amount of irritating trial-and-error writing before you finally get what you want. If you can put up with its notable flaws then Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training is a DS game card worth slotting into the back of your DS or 3DS. The presentation is tidy; the various tests are intriguing enough to tackle again and again; and those Sudoku puzzles are strangely hypnotizing in a good way. Hey, wait a minute...the 3 goes THERE...now I'm making progress again! Final Score: 7/10

That was fun to play! Then my child lost it...grrr...

There should be an award dedicated to a game that is both addictive and makes you think. Brain Training has made me realise that since finishing compulsory education I have stopped using my brain in the ways that I am supposed to and have allowed it to become lazy. The mathematical puzzles really did show such; things that I probably could have done a few years ago have now really made me pause. The sign of hope is that this is a "game" that will teach you to start using your brain again, simply by performing simple mathematical and logic tasks for a few minutes every day. Since having bought the game I have noticed a significant difference in my concentration and mathematical proficiency, which is quite a stunning thing to admit. What is best about this game is that it doesn't make it seem like it is a job that you are doing but that you are actually playing a game, and in all honesty as somebody who hated maths in school I now cannot stop playing on the number puzzles.

I bought this game about a month ago and play it almost daily. It is quite adictive and if you have any competitive streak in you ... you'll want to keep going back to it to beat your own score! My husband said, 'Its not my kind of thing' when I bought my DS, BUT I must say, that my DS goes missing every day so that he can do his brain training! Great game. Worth the price.

This is the perfect game for having a bit of fun once a day, and it's great to see how your brain progresses, or digresses over time. It doesn't have a massive content, but for its price you get a lot of fun out of it everyday. The head of Dr Kawashima is one that informs and charms the gamer, and he gives you loads of cool tips whilst you train your brain. The only problem I find with this game is that the lowest brain age is 20. I get a brain age of 20 everytime but because i am under 20 he still tells me that i could do better, but its just a little glitch i suppose.

englische VERSION VON Dr. Kawashimas Gehirn Jogging - Wie fit ist ihr Gehirn? Sudoku 40 x einfach, 40 x mittel erst danach 40 x schwer mit Sudoku-Anleitung und guten Tipps Gehirnjogging 1) Alterstest: 3 verschiedene Aufgaben (bestes Alter ist 20, schlechtestes wohl 80) 2.) Training 2.1) Rechnen 20 2.2) Rechnen 100 2.3) Lesen (Ausschnitte meist Anfang von etwa 100 verschiedenen Klassikern mit Angabe des Autors und des Titels); 2.4) Merken: erst 4 Zahlen sichtbar für etwa eine halbe Sekunde; die Zahlen müssen in der richtigen Reihenfolge angetippt werden; dann immer 1 Zahl mehr bei richtiger Antwort) 2.5) Silben zählen (10 kurze Sätze) 2.6) Haus (5 Etappen; Figuren beobachten/zählen, die in ein Haus hinein gehen und teilweise wieder heraus) 2.7) Magisches Dreieck (etwa jeweils 10 kleine Rechenrätsel) 2.8) Zeit (etwa 10 kleine Rechenrätsel mit 2 Analoguhren) 2.9) Laut rechnen (50 kleine Rechenaufgaben; Spracherkennung klappt nur zu etwa 80%, daher manchmal 2 oder noch mehr Versuche) Das Spiel hat noch ein Paar Gags eingebaut wie scheinbar persönlche Tipps oder Ratschläge oder kleine Zwischenaufgaben wie ein Bild malen; bei mehreren Nutzern werden die Bilder dann verglichen; nur 3 Sterne, da Aufgaben recht leicht und nur begrenzte Abwechslung; bestes Logik-Spiel siehe andere Rezension von mir: Logik-Coach (Brainbenders) von Dr. Reiner Knizias); Das schon installierte Spiel in meinem DSi "Gehirnjogging für Zwischendurch" ist besser, da es ein tolles Pianoprogramm mit etwa 40 Liedern eingebaut hat. Die Gängelung bei den Spielen mit einer gewissen Tagesbegrenzung habe ich durch mehrfaches Umstellen des Datums umgangen!

I'm a 50 year old woman - and probably in the age range of people that this product is supposed to help. Like my friends, I complain of forgetting names, and other memory lapses that undermine my confidence. Brain Age is a program that touts working your brain's pre-frontal cortex - to keep your brain in good shape. The first time I did this program it said that my Brain Age was 80! After a few days I got my Brain Age down to 28. (20 is the "best" age you can get.) My 9 and 12 year old sons' first Brain Ages were also in the 80s, though it told them that players under age 20 should take the results "with a grain of salt." There are two categories of activities in Brain Age. You can choose "Brain Age Check" or "Training." If you choose "Brain Age," you first answer if you are in an environment where you can speak. Then you are given three tests chosen at random, and your Brain Age is calculated based on how well you performed on the three tests. Examples of Brain Age Check tests are: Stroop Test - This test shows you names of colors. Each name is in a different color, and you are to name the color that the word is written in. You may see the word "Blue" and it can be written in Yellow, Black, Blue or Red, and you are to say the color it is written in. (This is harder than you think!) Counting - This test asks you to count, as quickly as possible, without slurring, from 1 to 120. Connect the numbers-and-letters. In this test one screen has the letters A through M, and the numbers 1 through 13, each circled, randomly placed on the screen. Your task is to take the stylus and make one long line, connecting A with 1, then moving to B and 2, then C and 3, etc., until you end with M and 13. Word Memory. In this test you are shown 30 words on the 2 screens and given 2 minutes to memorize them. You then are given 3 minutes to write down as many as you can remember. Counting numbers. On one screen you are shown different numbers in different colors, some of the numbers may be pulsing, rotating and/or sliding. The program will ask you things like "How many blue #s?" or "How many sliding numbers?" The other part of the program is Daily Training exercises. At first not all of the exercises are available to you, more become available as you use the program. Some examples of the Daily Training activities are: Calculations X 20. You are given 20 easy calculations, like 5-2, 7X8, 6+3. You try to complete these as quickly and accurately as possible, with penalties for inaccurate answers. Calculations X100. Same as above, with 100 calculations. Low to High Number Memory. One screen flashes four to eight numbers. Then, on the other screen, you are shown spots in the same formation, and you are to tap, in order, where the lowest to highest numbers were. The screen may flash up to 8 numbers at a time. Head Count. On one screen you are shown a number of people figures. Next, a house comes down and hides them. Figures then enter and exit the house, and, after a few, you are asked how many figures are left in the house. The training exercise has you do this 5 times, it starts out very easy and gets very hard. Reading Aloud. You are timed as you read a short passage aloud. Passages are interesting, and include sections of Dracula, Jack London, the Constitution, etc. Syllable Count. You are shown a number of short phrases, like "A penny saved is a penny earned." and asked to count the number of syllables in each. There are other games, and more games become "unlocked" as you use the program. Plusses and the minuses: I like this program a lot - and I do think that it has helped my attention to detail. I'm getting better at all the activities - I can remember up to 18 words on Word Memory, when I started playing I remembered only 10. The Voice Recognition and writing recognition are better than I expected, but they are far from perfect, and that is the most frustrating thing about the program. For example, in the Stroop Test the DS never understands when I say the word "Blue" (and I am a native English speaker.) So I use 2 player files: one where I say I can speak when I do the Brain Age Check, and one where I say I can't. The age difference in the Brain Age is about 20 years. Also, many times I will write a number or a letter and the DS will think I've written a different number or letter. Many of these tasks are timed, so I am trying to write quickly, and it'll think, for example, that a "5" is a "4", or an "L" is a "C", and then I get penalized for wrong answers. (On the bright side: this is a good exercise in persevering in the face of frustration! A whole new product line idea!) Bottom Line: This game is fun, addictive, and might actually have lasting benefits. Not bad for $19.95!

Excellent for our recent plane ride for everyone to try it out. Getting better at the Sudoku all the time.

Tutto ok

Perfecto