Brain Age

 

Let's talk a bit about these educational video games. Because the first 3 are so similar, I decided to fuse them into one review.

I am of course talking about Brain Age, Brain Age 2 and Brain Age: Concentration Training, or as they are called over here in Europe, Brain Training: How old is your Brain?, More Brain Training and Devilish Brain Training.

The concept and ideas of these games are developed by Dr. Ryuta Kawashima, a Japanese neuroscientist. They are designed to improve one's mental processes, regardless of your current age, as all humans are basically welcome.

These include simple mathematical tasks, rock, paper and scissor, counting time, writing down words and playing the well known numerical puzzle game known as sudoku. The overall packages are designed in such a way that you can only play them once per day.

Kawashima himself appears in the games in a 3D variant as the host, educator and entertainer, motivating and teaching you to become better, and to show you stuff about how human brain activity works.

Brain Age is one of the very few video games that my mother likes to play, the other being Tetris. I used to show this to my grandmother too, and I enjoyed seeing how they interacted with the games using the stylus.

Now with a new Nintendo Switch version being available, I might jump back in, as Devilish Training was underwhelming after it got delayed for so long. Not only to keep my mental clockwork ticking, but also to enjoy!