Brain Training 2 - 7/10
Brain training…it’s a title that completely rocked the gaming world, made millions of sales for the DS, and supposedly was the link that bridged the gap between the gamer and non-gamer. The first installment, while bringing a lot of new players to the gaming community, quickly lost interest with some of the more “hardcore” members. So how does the second installment measure up? Is it just a grab for money on a title that helped to sell the DS, or does it bring something new to the table?
GAMEPLAY: Gameplay is essentially the same in Brain Training 2. You hold the DS like a book, and once you make an account, you can change the screen to be left-handed (ie. the touch screen is on the left). Quick play mode is for a (very) quick brain age check, training, or Sudoku, designed for players to show their friends, and give them a go, without having to make them an account. The mode works well, though the soduku is no different from that which you can access from the main menu, and I would have liked to see more variation in the brain age quick check and training activities.
To set up an account is very easy and straight forward, though when I gave it to my family to try, they did have some difficulty understanding what some of the puzzles were asking them to do, which, obviously lowered their score, and subsequently, their brain age.
The Main Menu
One thing that really annoyed me with Brain Training 2 was Dr Kawashima. His constant chatter was so irritating, and I found myself stabbing the screen trying to get him to hurry up. Unfortunately, there is no option to turn him off.
There is a fairly good variety of puzzles to play, but you’ll find that you just end up doing the ones you are good at every day, rather than the ones you find challenging. In fact, the thing I enjoyed most was the “hidden” relaxation game, “Germ Buster”.
The puzzles themselves are fairly simple, and once completed, you get a speed rating. This can go up to rocket speed! Once you get fairly good at a particular puzzle, you get the option of playing it in “hard” mode, which, obviously, is harder. After every training exercise though, Dr Kawashima will comment on your performance and tell you the exercise is “good for activating your prefrontal cortex”, and telling you some really obvious stuff about the brain, like “your brain is more active when you do things you enjoy”, yeah, we get it! Over time your performance in each exercise, and your brain age, is marked on a chart for you to look at. You also get a stamp for every day you train, and the stamp becomes bigger if you do at least 3 training exercises.
One of the training exercises.
But still, despite annoying amounts of text, which just repeats itself, there is some fun (if not short-lived), in trying to beat your high score, and getting a better brain age.
8/10
SOUND: The sound is a few tracks (about 3 I think), played over, and over, and over again. They all sound pretty similar, like they were designed as background elevator music. The hardly stay in the background though. I don’t know if they are “specially designed” to stimulate your brain or something like that, but they just plain annoy me.
5/10
GRAPHICS: The graphics aren’t really anything amazing, it’s just a bunch of text and pretty colours. The colours don’t clash and the text is easy and clear to read. The head of Dr Kawashima is really rough and jagged, and you can see the lines and blocks of colour. The animation of the head, though, is quite amusing as it reacts to your performance.
7/10
REPLAY: Honestly, if you last until you get a brain age of 20 (the lowest possible score), and a fairly good score on each of the training exercises, you are doing well in my books. I didn’t last that long, this game isn’t really my type. But you really won’t be that bothered to keep it up daily for an amazing length of time, and if you do, once you stop, it will be a very long time before you come back to it.
6/10
Sudoku.
OVERALL: Brain Training is an interesting title, which I will admit brought a whole new type of gamer to the market. It has a quirky floating head, and some math puzzles, designed to keep your brain healthy and active. Brain training won’t hold the more “hardcore” gamers though, but it wasn’t intended to. Overall, a fairly good game, but with nothing to make it stand out, other than that annoying music!
7/10
By insectoid
Please leave feedback and let me know how to improve!
Submitted by insectoid
15/02/2008
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Brain Age 2:Train your Brain in Minutes a Day
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