Brain Age!
By: Coty May
Games in Education
30 January 2009
What are Brain Age and Brain Age 2? What is the sole purpose of a game like this? What system would you or could you play Brain Age one or two on? Well, to give you a short run down about this game. It is a multi or single player game; played on your own hand held gaming device (known as a Nintendo DS) or download on to your PC. It can be played by wireless (which is build into the DS); with others who have the same game or on a single player mode on your DS. According to
launch/training.jsp “just like how you lose muscle mass with age, your brain function begins to decrease when you reach maturity? This happens even if you lead a normal, healthy life.” What Brain Age tries to do is keep your brain actively thinking and motivated. “Brain Age is based on the premise that cognitive exercise can improve blood flow to the brain. All it takes is as little as a few minutes of play time a day.” (
The solitary role of this game is to simulate your brain. It does this by a composite of about 15 different games. Ranging from Sign Finder (this gives you an equation and you have to find the missing symbol; example: +,-,x,/) to Piano Player (which helps you learn how to play the piano to the beat of a song) all the way to Number Memory (which makes you memorize a table of numbers and write the numbers on the opposite touch screen to complete the table; this is done in a allotted time frame). Each game helps you remember different things such as;your place in a race to unscrambling words to complete words or sentences. This simulates your Prefrontal Cortex which is the “control tower” of your brain. It is what determines the storage location of your knowledge and how much is going to be stored (
When playing Brain Age or Brain Age 2 it is mostly played on a Nintendo DS. What is a Nintendo DS you ask? It is a “dual-screen handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo” ( This means it is a flip style device with one touch screen on one side and a small monitor on the other. It also comes in several different colors such as red, pink, blue and black to green and even Pokémon yellow. The DS (mostly known as) uses a stylus to play the games on the touch screen portion of the device. This is where Brain Age comes into play. It uses the touch screen and the stylus to play on a virtual piano keyboard or to write the numbers to complete the equation. The controls are pretty basic you have your stylus that you use on the touch screen and the A, B, X, Y and the directional key button (up, down, left or right). The buttons let you choice between games and to let you skip problems that you are not able to figure out.
Brain Age and Brain Age 2 can be used by all groups of people from the very young, the teen age years to the elderly. When used in the morning as you awake it helps the brain to store more information by simulating the brain for daily use.
While this game quickly became one of the top selling DS games it came with a few downfalls. But as all games good or bad have their ups they also have a few downs. While there is no action or one on one combat/shooting in Brain Age; it will motivate your brain to think and works the muscles in your brain for a much better and consistent blood flow. It also lacks graphics, basically it has no graphics. There is no need for a high end graphics card or combat skills in this game. It is made to make you think and work the muscles of your brain. There is no real need for any improvements on this game. It is not meant to converse with other players or kill anything. It is just meant as a basic learning game.
In conclusion is Brain Age a simulation game that simulates learning. The answer to that is 100% yes! Unlike most games this is not meant to kill or be killed or to even get experience points to gain the next level or complete quest to gain money. The sole purpose of this game is to make you think; sometimes at a fast pace or with the piano at a slow pace to the music. It can be challenging and mind teasing at points but all in all I give Brain Age a B+; only due to the limited graphics. But on the learning and training ability scale I give it an A+.