Review by AskaLangly
"Brain Age :: Perfect for 'yeu' !"
Brain Age started a craze with brain training; books, magazines, and games. It was even featured on Discovery Channel with a minute spot. It eventually became popular with most middle-aged people, trying to make their brains sharper by doing simple math, reading, etc. that can be done in elementary schools (Remember the "50 simple math problems done within 2 minutes" tests?)
Sudoku was, and still is, a puzzle craze in Japan, England, and eventually into the US. England, primarily, even had a sudoku game show on TV, due to its popularity in the country's newspapers.
Combine the two... and you have mini games that are just simply fun for just minutes a day.
The big problem with Brain Age was a program called "Stroop Test". You had to say the colors of another color word, i.e. you say "red" with a red-colored "blue". The voice recognition was bad because it couldn't understand, by many, the word "blue". You had to give it the "eu" sound, i.e. chicken cordon bleu, in order for it to recognize the word. Same with a program called "Voice Calculation". It couldn't recognize the number "two", unless you gave it the "eu" sound. Many users would find it better not to use the Voice Recognition feature on the game.
Now the rundown...
Simply put, it is a game that you'd like to play if you have some spare time on your hands, at work, school, or anywhere else. With four data files for four different people, things will make it interesting, when everyone is prompted to draw pictures of something. Once all the people draw the pictures, they are shown to all people. Talk about originality.
Why is the score a 9 for such a game that uses primarily 2D graphics? Anti-aliasing (blending of graphics)... and the Doctor's head. Really, there's no more to explain here.
The music gives the game a "brainy" theme and the sound effects are just pretty basic, but on your results, depend on how fast you work, you tap the moving object (person, car, train, etc.) and it does something. When you work slow, performing at walking speed, the figure whistles the first six notes to the Super Mario Bros. theme.
Once you unlock everything, there really isn't much to do except for sudoku puzzles. However, once your friend or family member knocks you off the number one spot of any program (and you like being number one), you fight for the game and strive to beat that score or time!
A game worth the $20, especially if the family likes games that are fun for everyone. Friendly competition, or sibling rivalry, this would get kids and adults alike to train their brains for minutes a day.
Reviewer's Score: 9/10 | Originally Posted: 12/18/07
Game Release: Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day! (US, 04/17/06)
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