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Nintendo - Brain Age 2: More training...
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lostwithoutabeat's Review
Sharpen your brain while a little japanese man makes fun of you!
growing smarter from video games!, not that good at sudoku
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NOV
21
2007
Nintendo - Brain Age 2: More training in minutes a day! —
The biggest descriptor of this game is right there in its subtitle, "more training in just minutes a day". For all means and purposes this is the same game as the original Brain Age. The big difference is the addition of new mini games to train and stimulate you prefrontoral cortex, the part of the brain that controls how you apply what you know. Will it give you a higher SAT score? Probably not but I can't think of any reason why mind puzzles and math problems could be bad for you so go ahead and flex that cerebellum and try to have a little fun while you're at it.The training games in Brain Age 2 are more difficult than the previous version which, for the most part, had you doing basic math problems. Well the math is back but this time the creators have thrown in a few twists such as one game where you continually add numbers, but one number is removed from the screen after a second or so, which forces you to use your memory to remember numbers and solve the problem. Another puts the keys of a piano on the touch screen and has you follow along with some sheet music to play a tune. Another has voices say two or three words at the same time, and you need to pick apart the garbled speech then write down the words you hear. All in all, the different games are satisfyingly different from what was in the first game and make for a solid companion piece.
As the title suggests, one of the functions of this game is to help you determine your "Brain Age". It does so through 3 different tests but gives you the disclaimer that if you're under 20 that your brain is still developing so its not an exact figure. Whether its science or not its still fun rag on your friends when your brain is "younger" than theirs.
Unfortunately no game is immune to problems. Brain Age 2 suffers from some of the same issues that the previous game did because the speech and handwriting recognition can occasionally get a wee bit sketchy. It's quite frustrating to know all the answers only to have the game give you a penalty because you didn't speak clearly enough for it to pick out your words or write as straight as possible.
Also the sudoku puzzles from the first iteration are back but I don't really like them much :P There are definitely just as many if not more puzzles than the first game so if that's you're thing more power to you.
On top of the brain training and sudoku, you can play the game with up to 16 players in all, using only one copy of the game. Competing on some of the games can be fun, though you get a lot of that by having multiple players play the single-player training games on one DS as well. The game also has a very basic touch-screen version of Dr. Mario called Virus Buster hidden in it, which is really kind of neat and a nice break from all the math.
Brain Age 2 is solid fun and available at a bargain price. But it is best suited for players who have already trained the original Brain Age into the ground and want a slightly more advanced course. If you haven't played the original, you should start there and work your way onto the sequel.
Nintendo - Brain Age 2: More training in minutes a day! is recommended by lostwithoutabeat
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