Brain Age and Big Brain Academy on DS - The Global Brain Training Phenomenon

[wraggster]

News from Lik Sang

Company lines and press releases aside, very few games can truly be called a phenomenon. The Brain Training series on the DS however is exactly that, and in particular with the English releases this year and their fantastic price points, they've become the talk of the town. This is quite simply unheard of for 'educational games', but after decades of exercising players' thumbs, Nintendo has moved onto our minds. Here we'll look at what all the fuss is about, and right now we have both titles in stock and shipping free worldwide within 24 hours. Since the DS is completely region free too, purchasing them is a no-brainer as these will work no matter which corner of the globe you bought your handheld from.



The series was inspired by the work of Professor Ryuta Kawashima, a prominent Japanese neuroscientist whose Brain Training books have sold over a million copies. His studies evaluated the effect of performing reading and mathematic exercises to help stimulate the brain, and the result is as Nintendo's main man Reggie Fils-Aime says, "a treadmill for the mind." Combined, the two titles sold over 5 million copies in Japan alone, and just for a fun comparison, that’s just more than The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker sold the entire world over!

Regular readers of our Weekly Gaming Update may have also noticed the games haven't dropped off Japan's Top 10 Weekly Sales Charts for, well the entire of 2006. Likewise in the States they’ve been on the Top 10 lists of Amazon and Best Buy since their release, and over in Europe the first title came out just recently and sold 250,000 copies in just a single month. This is indeed a gaming phenomenon.

Much more on this article at the link above.

[battleroyalex]

They need to make one that teaches me japanese lol

[SSaxdude]

I increased my IQ to 75 using Brain Age.

[ACID]

I increased my IQ to 75 using Brain Age.

to 75 wow can we ask what it was before. Current IQ 123

[ACID]

Big Brain Academy is more fun though.

[slitchfield]

The series is a nice idea, but after reviewing the Brain Age title I was distinctly under-whelmed. Sorry. Lots of intellectual exercise, it's true, but you could get your brain going by doing crosswords, writing or painting or composing, etc. All of which are more fun, sad to say, than Brain Age.

Steve