Sight Training
By Matt Kelly
Brain Training (aka Brain Age in some parts of the world) was one of those games that came out of no where for me. I was aware of the title and its concept but I hadn't really followed it. When it hit shelves in 2006, it flew straight back off them, so of course I checked it out. Between the simple but challenging gameplay, Dr Kawashima's personality throughout the game, and the urge to improve both through playing against friends and the games well designed demand for self improvement, I was hopelessly addicted. Since then we've seen an excellent 2007 sequel which expanded the gameplay and experience, along with the success of the concept in other titles such as the Big Brain series, also from Nintendo.
But now in 2008 we've moved on from brains and onto training our eyes in Sight Training (aka Flash Focus). Developed by Bandai Namco, as opposed to Nintendo, Sight Training features the same basic gameplay concepts, but something just isn't right about it. Read on to find out why Sight Training will be awesome for everyone who's never played a video game in their life, and why anyone who's played one of the other Touch Generation games will probably put it down very fast.
You'll find that Sight Training takes on a very similar format to the Brain Training series. Straight off the bat you'll find yourself with a series of challenges to test various aspects of your eyes such as momentary vision, hand to eye coordination, peripheral vision and so on. After completing a series of (very clinical) test, you'll have an 'Eye Age' score generated. You'll then write your signature for your profile and the daily training commences.
Already you will have found that one of Sight Training's major flaws is it lacks personality. While Brain Training's disembodied Kawashima head wasn't laugh out loud hilarious, little things like him holding a torch below his head at night to “change the mood” added a lot to keeping you playing. More on this later.
Secondly, the vast majority of sight exercises are very clinical, in that they're little more than geometric shapes on a black background. While this is probably due to the requirement of not distracting your eye's focus, it does suggest maybe eye sight wasn't the best idea for a new training 'game'.
So what kind of training exercises will you be put through? There are two categories, Core Training and Sports Training. Core Training is the bulk of the clinical tests, and these involve things such as 'Box Track' which asks you to follow a green box underneath one of three gray boxes while they move around. Then you've got "Number Flash", which will flash a sequence of numbers at you for a split second that you have to tap out of the sequence. There's several more of these kind of challenges, such as remembering the order of symbols as they flash around the screen, and tapping boxes as they appear on the screen at high speed. As said previously, these are all very basic to look at. What you see serves its purpose but nothing more. Again this is probably due to the nature of the test, but core training won't be the part of the game you keep coming back to as you don't feel particularly challenged by these.
Sports Training on the other hand is a little graphically richer though still as tacky. These vision exercises are designed around sporting situations, such as boxing, volleyball, and table tennis. In Volleyball for example, you will find balls coming at you from over the net. Your aim is to spike the ball back across the net when its in an marked out orange area. But the catch is you've got two incredibly tacky looking live actor opponents trying to stop you from returning it. So it's a matter of timing and hand-to-eye coordination. Tapping the ball closer to the centre will also score you bonus points. There's a variety of these kind of games, and while they're little more interesting than core training, you just can't shake the feeling that they're little more than mini games and have no real basis for training your eyes.
So that's the gameplay, while its fun for a while, you probably won't be coming back to it regularly like Brain Training as you'll just feel that there's not a lot really happening. It's hard to believe in the exercises.
Graphically, Sight Training is kind of hard to gauge. As said above, all the core training has a very clinical feel to it but again, this is no doubt due to the fact that they are testing your eyes, and visual distractions would go a long way towards detracting from that. They serve their purpose but won't blow your socks off, you can decide if that's a negative or a positive. In sports training you'll find the odd 3D environment but the majority of the graphics are static backgrounds with filmed people super imposed on them. It looks like Bandai Namco was trying to go for the funk factor that Nintendo titles are taking at the moment, such as WarioWare, but it ends up failing.
The interface is smooth, crisp and responsive, as the Brain Training games were. Bandai Namco have clearly been using Nintendo's style guide for this with one big omission. Its got no personality to it. The lack of any kind of personal interaction with a character (such as Kawashima from Brain Training) add to the disinterest in pursuing the goals of the game. Instead what you have is these pixel people, a series of characters that will lecture you repeatedly about the importance of training your eyes and how its great if your a sports player.
Two flaws:
1. The characters have no personality to them, and repeat phrases a lot. You stop caring what they're saying very fast.
2. I hate sport, I have absolutely no interest in the benefits of sight training in this context. Brain Training was great in that Kawashima's character remained quite neutural on these kind of things, instead giving you interesting facts about the brain and other little tid bits of info. The pixel people seem totally focused on sport and sport alone. It gets very boring. If you're into it then great but even then I can imagine even mega sports enthusiasts will get sick of the repetitive dialog.
Like Brain Training, Sight Training's sound and music doesn't have a huge impact on the game, but the sound is quite good. You'll be treated to some nicely composed blipy music while on the menus, and what sound effects there are a very crisp and responsive, especially in the sport training.
Overall:
Sight Training takes all the nuts and bolts of Brain Training and leaves what makes it fun on the cutting room floor. Between the lack of any virtual personality in the game, being uninteresting to look at, and the unchanging to play Sight Training exercises, you won't find yourself wanting to raise your skills and get your daily stamp. Graphics are clinical most of the time, but serve their purpose well. Music and sound is great, but you could very easily have this turned off and you wouldn't notice.
Gameplay - 7
Cool concepts but dull execution. The gameplay doesn't really challenge and you really don't feel like you're really accomplishing anything. Great game for those new to the DS, just make sure they haven't played Brain Training first.
Graphics - 6
Serve their purpose and nothing more. Core Training is very clinical, and Sport Training is tacky as.
Sound - 8
Great music and crisp sounds, but you could mute the game and not notice they were gone.
Replay - 6
If you dig the concept there's a fair few exercises to unlock and the challenge to lower your Eye Age and beat your friends will keep you playing. Hate the concept and you'll probably not even make it past day 3 of gameplay.
Overall - 7
Sight Training is a great game for absolute beginners on the DS, but anyone beyond that will find more entertainment in the many other superior Touch Generation titles out there. If Bandi Namco had just added a little personality to the game, it could have worked so much better.
Submitted by Robtot
06/02/2008
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Sight Training: Enjoy Exercising and Relaxing Your Eyes
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