Brain Age: Addiction to Learning

When I hear learning can be fun I ignore the commercial and move on. But after hearing on multiple podcasts and from friends about how great Brain Age was I had to give it a try. I went to Gamestop to try out the demo and I was hooked within a few minutes and bought the game. This game is not graphically awesome, the music is not cool or catchy. But the gameplay is incredibly addictive.

This game is all about increasing the use of your brain. By figuring out math problems, reading aloud, and other games you can train your brain to be stronger. Sounds fun right? Thats what I thought, how can learning be so fun that this game is a bestseller in America and Japan. I learned that this game takes education and gaming and fuses them together very well.

The games consist of math, English, grammar, and speed. Each games tests your skill with one subject but also records your time and mistakes. if you make a mistake you lose a set amount of seconds from your final time. For example, with math calculations for each mistake you make 5 seconds are tacked to your end time. If you finish in 25 seconds with one mistake, your true time was 30 seconds. This is a big drive to excel and get the best possible time to beat your friends.

Math is not the only game that you are tested over. The stroop test shows you the words blue, black, red, and yellow. However the text is colored with red, blue, black or yellow colors. So the text may say BLACK but the text is colored blue. Your job is to speak the color into the mike correctly. In this instance the correct answer is blue. This was the first game I played and I laughed at how easy it was, and how terrible I did. This made me try harder and faster for next time. But there are more types of ways to test your brain's strength. One mode shows you thirty words for three minutes. Your job is to remember as many as possible and write them down in two minutes.

Brain Age takes voice input and writing on the touch screen to a new level. However this can sometimes backfire. the voice input has never made a mistake for me. Writing numbers and letters can cause some frustration. When writing numbers and letters write them as big and accurate as possible. Writing small letters and numbers makes the game try to figure out what you wrote while the clock is ticking. I have learned that open 4's are the proper digit to draw. This digit 4 on the screen is interpreted as a 9.

And make sure to close your 8 digit or the game thinks you drew a 6.Regarding the text writing, I have had some difficulty with writing the proper words and the game recognizing what I am trying to say. But once again the developers have set a way where the game will take a guess at what you are trying to write. In the game where you memorize as many words as possible I wrote door as an answer. The game said I wrote doon, then quickly translated it into door.

Even with some weak points this game is something I would suggest for you personal collection. It retails for $20.00 US dollars and includes a full version of Sudoku included on the game card. This game really gives you bang for your buck and is rather fun to show off to your friends.