solitaire-y brain age: concentration training

about a month ago i played through the brain age express: arts & letters, the fourth entry in the brain age series, in order to prepare myself for the 3DS entry, brain age: concentration training. even though i played them practically back to back, concentration training‘s core mode is pretty unique and the game offers enough new supplemental fluff to be enjoyable, for the most part. perhaps unsurprisingly, i got suckered into playing it religiously for the same reasons as the original game: the allure of unlocking new exercises combined with the ability to fool myself into thinking that i’m actually making myself a better person than people who don’t play the game. 😉

as i mentioned in my post on brain age express: arts & letters, the “2-back” and “3-back” mechanics of the photo recall exercises in that game form much of the core in this game, and appears in 3 of the 8 “devilish” (i.e. concentration training) exercises. (see this random review i came across for a more thorough run-down of the various modes and exercises). the other devilish exercises are new, although “devilish mice” is basically a variation of the exercise “head count” (in which you had to count figures that rapidly entered and exited a house), and “devilish pairs” is the familiar game of “concentration” where you have to match pairs of cards laid face down, with misses only counted for flipping a card you’ve already seen and not correctly locating its match.

aside from being new exercises, the unique feature of devilish training is that the difficulties adjust to your performance, so the games are always challenging no matter much you play them. you’re limited to only five minutes with each exercise each day, and you’ll find that you quickly reach your limit and that trying to push yourself to the next higher level can be addicting. this ends up being much more satisfying than simply chasing after a fastest time like in the previous games in the series, and it’s hard to find much to complain about the new mode since the devilish training exercises have a good amount of variety and are consistently challenging.

the game presents a “greatest hits” of previous exercises via two other modes, “supplemental training” and “brain training”. all the exercises that were new in the brain age express titles make an appearance here, so people who didn’t play those two games will suffer less from deja vu. but for the most part the exercises that they’ve recycled here are enjoyable. the game includes achievements in the form of “certificates”, which for these modes basically challenge you to get the “rocket” speed in each exercise. for the most part these challenges are worthwhile, with the main exception being “word attack”, in which you have to remember words and write them down as quickly as possible, due to the slowness of the handwriting recognition. the handwriting recognition seems to work slightly better than previous games in general, but having to wrestle with it while trying to achieve faster times can be quite frustrating.

the other main addition to the “brain age” training mode is a slew of solitaire games, including such well-known variations card games as “klondike”, “spider”, and “golf”. the first two were actually released as touch solitaire on DSiware, so people who bought that game will also find these exercises to be a bit redundant. but along with those games there’s also peg solitaire (move pegs by hopping over adjacent pegs until only one is left), mahjong, and a brand-new vs. CPU game in which you alternate turns to navigate a board trying to capture as many points as possible. i’m not a big fan of solitaire games in general so these modes were just filler to me, but for fans of solitaire these inclusions will be a big bonus on top of the already-solid devilish training mode.

rounding out the package is “relaxation mode”, which features the same brain age version of dr. mario that was included in previous entries, plus “blob blast”, a fantastic touchscreen-based reworking of wario’s woods. “blob blast” would’ve been a great standalone title on DSiware, but here it’s yet another nice bonus to the overall package.

the overall presentation gets a bit of an upgrade, although the exercises themselves keep the clean and not-too-clinical-looking aesthetic. dr. kawashima himself also has a voice actor this time who is suitably reassuring and encouraging, although his canadian accent (most noticeable when he says “sorry!”) ended up being too anomalous for me (not to mention his constantly upbeat attitude) and i had to make use of the much-appreciated option to mute him completely.

overall as a continuation of the brain age series there’s little to complain about, especially if you haven’t played the brain age express titles. “devilish training” is much more enjoyable and frustration-free than i had expected (helped in big part by the daily five-minute limit per exercise), and although quite a few of the exercises are recycled from previous versions, the addition of solitaire games does a good job of rounding out the experience. i could easily continue playing this in order to increase my performance, but other games on my 3DS have been clamoring for attention so i’m going to have to set this aside for now and come back to it later. this is easily one of my favorite games on the system thus far, and i’m guessing other fans of the brain age series will be equally satisfied.

concentrate on these companionable brain age: concentration training links:
– official site
– iwata asks interview with kawashima himself. [he actually exists! and he looks just like he does in the game! minus the horns. ;)]
– celebrity endorsement by a US memory champion who apparently made it up to 30-back! wowza!
– list of unlockables at gamefaqs
– review at nintendolife.com
– entry at metacritic.com

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forgettable brain age express: arts & letters

in order to get myself ready for the 3DS interation of the brain age series, i finished going through the 30 days required to unlock all the modes in brain age express: arts & letters on DSi. similar to how brain age 2 was a much slower and more boring experience than the original, this entry was much less engaging than its enjoyable companion brain age express: math. like that “express” title, this game isn’t just a subset of previous entries in the series, and includes 3 brand-new exercises, all of which include harder modes. i enjoyed two of the three new exercises (the exception being “meet and greet” in which you memorize names and cartoon faces), but of the 3 returning exercises the only one i really liked was “word scramble”, in which you have to unscramble a group of letters to form words. the “themes” were still enjoyable, and the challenge mode (10 levels unlocked when you achieve a brain age of 20) wasn’t too frustrating for the most part (see below for the list of challenges if you’re interested). the main exception there was the “3-back” photo recall challenge. this was one of the new exercises, in which you have to remember photographs while being presented with a constant stream of new photos, some of which are flipped horizontally. this type of brain training has actually formed one of the cores of the 3DS’s “concentration training”, so it’s been interesting to move from this experience to that one.

all in all this wasn’t nearly as enjoyable as the other brain age express title, and concentration training has actually rendered both of them obsolete in most cases since it looks like the new exercises have been incorporated into that game. i was a bit leery of the challenges that i’d have to work through for the 3DS game, but so far i’m really enjoying it. more on that before too long.

don’t forget these brain age express: arts & letters links:
– FAQ at gamefaqs.com
– review at nintendolife.com
– if you’re curious about the challenges, here’s the list:

• 0: symbol match, < 35 seconds
• 1: word memory, memorize 20
• 2: word attack, < 1 min 20 seconds
• 3: photo recall (2-back), < 1 minute
• 4: meet and greet challenge mode (face, first and last name, occupation for all 8), all correct
• 5: word scramble challenge mode (i think they use the ones you’ve previously missed), < 3 minutes
• 6: connect maze, < 35 sec
• 7: dr. mario challenge mode, clear
• 8: piano player, get perfect on march from aida
• 9: photo recall challenge mode (3 back), < 1 min 40 seconds

overlooked brain age express: math

i had played and thoroughly enjoyed brain age and brain age 2 on DS, so i was looking forward to trying out the two brain age express games that came pre-installed on my DSi XL, especially since they contain new activities. i tried out brain age express: math first and found it to be much more enjoyable and unique than reviews, such as this one from nintendolife.com, suggested.

the game is immediately familiar to anyone who has played either brain age title. the interface, art, music, and overall aesthetic, are consistent with the other two games, but fans will notice small tweaks here and there, such as to the music. this iteration includes 7 training exercises and 5 test modes, compared to the 9 training and 5 test of the original game. the 12 exercises in this game are fairly evenly split between the math-oriented exercises of the original and its sequel, with another 3 new exercises rounding out the list. as with the rest of the series, many of the games include a second, harder difficulty.

of the three new games, “multitasker” is very similar to my least favorite exercise of the original, “head count”, which tasks you with keeping track of the number of people entering and exiting a house, although in this case you also have to do sums at the same time. however, the other two are much more worthwhile. “sum totaled” has you adding an increasingly full screen of groups of numbers, and “by the numbers”, has you keeping track of a sequence of numbers trying to spot ones that match the two conditions, such as multiples of 7 or include the number 3. the former is a particularly noteworthy addition, as its hard mode provides the closest thing to an actual game that the series has seen. in this mode you encounter multiple stages with “enemies” of sums that have unique behaviors, for example ants and dragons, and reveal and hide their numbers in different patterns. the “boss battles” are entertaining, and doing sums hasn’t been this viscerally entertaining since the classic number munchers. the game also includes “virus buster”, the touch-based version of dr. mario that was included in brain age 2.

a satisfyingly expanded “greatest hits” version of the brain age series would’ve been a treat enough, but the game scores by providing two new experiences as well. the first of these is rooted in the drawing exercises in the original two titles. whereas in those you could see the creations of others who were also sharing your game card, in this game it’s a separate mode and you can have random guests take a stab at showing off their drawing skills. the interface is simple yet effective, and over the holidays my family got a kick out of seeing how bad our collective drawing skills were, and it was fascinating to see how similar or dissimilar our interpretations were. this game adds two additional creativity-inducing (and presumably prefrontal cortex exercising) modes. the first takes advantage of the DSi camera and has you taking a picture of “acting” an event, such as failing a test, and in the other you read lines from a melodramatic script. the acting category was a great addition, and this, along with the stupid fun i had with the DSi camera app, has made me really appreciate the entertainment value in pulling faces.

the second new experience was the challenge mode, something that other reviews barely touch on. unlocked after first reaching a brain age of 20, the challenge mode will definitely spark a love-hate relationship. there are ten challenges presented in sequence, and each is a task such as finishing an exercise in 30 seconds. all of the challenges are based on the training and test exercises, although since they exceed the “rocket” level (i.e. highest scoring) requirements of the exercises many of them are “nintendo” hard and will have you pulling your hair out, especially since you can only have one complete attempt a day (although as a tip remember that you can press start to exit out of the exercise and retry, since the game only allows one full attempt a day but as many retries as you want). this mode also sneaks in two new variations to existing exercises that are fun and would’ve been great new additions to the daily exercise regime if they had been included as hard difficulties you could play at any time instead of only within the challenge mode.

it will take you 30 days to unlock everything the game offers, but it may take you longer to complete all ten levels of the challenge mode. unlike the other DSi express games, this is far from being a slimmed down version of the brain age games, and ignoring it does a huge disservice to the great new experiences this iteration provides. if you’re as big a fan of the other two brain age titles as i am you’ll find a lot to love here. i’m sorely tempted to let this entry take the place of the original in my greatest games of all time list, but much as i appreciated the addition of the challenge mode, my love-hate relationship with it was just a little too strong for me to give this game the advantage. i’m already starting to have nightmares since i suspect that kawashima’s upcoming 3DS “demon” training title will have similar levels of pain. it will also be interesting to see how brain age express: arts and letters pans out. one of the things i most enjoyed about this title is how snappy the games are, so much as i like exercising the other side of my brain, i’m a bit leery, especially since i suspect that the challenge mode of that game will be significantly more frustrating and based on luck. we’ll see!

don’t ignore these brain age express: math links:
– i’ve created my first FAQ ever! check out my comprehensive guide to the challenge mode
– rundown of all the exercises at gamefaqs
– iwata asks interview on nintendo.co.uk
– and just for fun, entertaining swedish brain age 2 commercial

ooh my aging brain

been playing brain age for quite a while now, and brain age 2 since it came out (buying games as soon as they come out?? what is this world coming to??). i suppose i got the first game as much to see what all the fuss was about as the allure of self-improvement, but i was pleasantly surprised to find that despite its simple presentation and simple tasks the original game is thoroughly addictive and entertaining. whether or not it actually staves off alzheimer’s is one thing, but i enjoyed pretty much every section of the game, had virtually no problems with either the voice or the handwriting recognition (unless i was being sloppy), and found myself fitting at least a quick session into every day for more than a couple of months without getting sick of it.

unfortunately, the same cannot be said of its sequel. a lot of people seem to like the difference in the activities with less emphasis on math overall. it took me a while to pinpoint what i preferred about the original. what it boils down to is the fact that the activities in the sequel are much less intense, much less about racing against the clock. instead, a lot of the games, like player piano, word scramble, and word blend, take a significant amount of time to complete. one of the things i like about the original is that even if i wanted to go through all of the exercises in one sitting it wouldn’t take me that long, but going through all the exercises in brain age 2 always seems like a dragged-out affair to me.

despite my less than ecstatic reaction to brain age 2 i’ve still found myself playing both games every day. having gone through all 60 of the reading aloud selections in brain age (complete list here), i’ll prob. stick with brain age 2 for a while before switching back to brain age. it’ll be interesting to see how long i’ll still be playing these two games and whether i’ll still be playing them when the inevitable release of the third installment comes around. i’ll def. still be keeping them on hand to finish working my way through all the sudoku puzzles. once you do a sudoku with the brain age interface you’ll never be able to go back to pen and paper. i don’t know why people complain that there’s only a finite number of sudoku puzzles. after you’ve gone through them all, what are the chances that you’ll remember anything about the first one you did? anyway, here are some brainy links:

– interesting interview with the localization team (which includes an easter egg i’d missed even after having played it for ages)
– recap at gamespot.com of a media briefing more than a year ago in which they include a graph showing brain age’s startling longevity. amazingly enough the game still continues to be a best-seller.
– review at IGN
– brain age entry at wikipedia
– brain age 2 entry at wikipedia