wraggster
February 23rd, 2012, 02:49
Nintendo (http://www.edge-online.com/filter/all/tags/155) has announced a new game of brain training exercises starring Dr Kawashima, to be released in Japan this summer.
The game was announced by company president Satoru Iwata in a Nintendo Direct briefing earlier today. Speaking from a sound studio in the bowels of Nintendo's Kyoto HQ, Iwata recalled that he first met Dr Kawashima on the day DS launched in Japan, showing him a prototype that would eventually become Brain Training.
"We agreed that if we were to make another game it would only be when we had some kind of special new idea for it," Iwata said. "And for this reason, six years have passed. However, brain science has continued to progress, and three years ago, Dr Kawashima came to me with new brain science."
The new game will feature two types of brain exercises. The first, concentration, is aimed at improving players' ability to focus on a task without getting distracted.
"We now have access to information wherever and whenever we want," Iwata explained. "Since we now rely so much on these devices we might have stopped using our brains so much, lost our restraint, our ability to control ourselves and be patient. Dr Kawashima calls this 'information addiction'."
The second type is working memory, which Iwata said "may be a term you are not quite so familiar with. It's the system where information that enters your brain is held temporarily as it is manipulated and used."
These tests will be a serious challenge - so serious that Dr Kawashima takes the form of a demon throughout. Difficulty will scale according to player ability, and Kawashima was insistent that players be prevented from repeating the exercises too many times, which would dilute their effect.
No final name or release date were announced, though Iwata said the game would launch in Japan this summer. European plans are to be confirmed, but given the success of the DS originals a western release is surely inevitable.
http://www.edge-online.com/news/nintendo-announces-brain-training-3ds
The game was announced by company president Satoru Iwata in a Nintendo Direct briefing earlier today. Speaking from a sound studio in the bowels of Nintendo's Kyoto HQ, Iwata recalled that he first met Dr Kawashima on the day DS launched in Japan, showing him a prototype that would eventually become Brain Training.
"We agreed that if we were to make another game it would only be when we had some kind of special new idea for it," Iwata said. "And for this reason, six years have passed. However, brain science has continued to progress, and three years ago, Dr Kawashima came to me with new brain science."
The new game will feature two types of brain exercises. The first, concentration, is aimed at improving players' ability to focus on a task without getting distracted.
"We now have access to information wherever and whenever we want," Iwata explained. "Since we now rely so much on these devices we might have stopped using our brains so much, lost our restraint, our ability to control ourselves and be patient. Dr Kawashima calls this 'information addiction'."
The second type is working memory, which Iwata said "may be a term you are not quite so familiar with. It's the system where information that enters your brain is held temporarily as it is manipulated and used."
These tests will be a serious challenge - so serious that Dr Kawashima takes the form of a demon throughout. Difficulty will scale according to player ability, and Kawashima was insistent that players be prevented from repeating the exercises too many times, which would dilute their effect.
No final name or release date were announced, though Iwata said the game would launch in Japan this summer. European plans are to be confirmed, but given the success of the DS originals a western release is surely inevitable.
http://www.edge-online.com/news/nintendo-announces-brain-training-3ds