Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day!

I'm a 50 year old woman - and probably in the age range of people that this product is supposed to help. Like my friends, I complain of forgetting names, and other memory lapses that undermine my confidence. Brain Age is a program that touts working your brain's pre-frontal cortex - to keep your brain in good shape.The first time I did this program it said that my Brain Age was 80! After a few days I got my Brain Age down to 28. (20 is the "best" age you can get.) My 9 and 12 year old sons' first Brain Ages were also in the 80s, though it told them that players under age 20 should take the results "with a grain of salt."There are two categories of activities in Brain Age. You can choose "Brain Age Check" or "Training." If you choose "Brain Age," you first answer if you are in an environment where you can speak. Then you are given three tests chosen at random, and your Brain Age is calculated based on how well you performed on the three tests. Examples of Brain Age Check tests are:Stroop Test - This test shows you names of colors. Each name is in a different color, and you are to name the color that the word is written in. You may see the word "Blue" and it can be written in Yellow, Black, Blue or Red, and you are to say the color it is written in. (This is harder than you think!)Counting - This test asks you to count, as quickly as possible, without slurring, from 1 to 120.Connect the numbers-and-letters. In this test one screen has the letters A through M, and the numbers 1 through 13, each circled, randomly placed on the screen. Your task is to take the stylus and make one long line, connecting A with 1, then moving to B and 2, then C and 3, etc., until you end with M and 13.Word Memory. In this test you are shown 30 words on the 2 screens and given 2 minutes to memorize them. You then are given 3 minutes to write down as many as you can remember.Counting numbers. On one screen you are shown different numbers in different colors, some of the numbers may be pulsing, rotating and/or sliding. The program will ask you things like "How many blue #s?" or "How many sliding numbers?"The other part of the program is Daily Training exercises. At first not all of the exercises are available to you, more become available as you use the program. Some examples of the Daily Training activities are:Calculations X 20. You are given 20 easy calculations, like 5-2, 7X8, 6+3. You try to complete these as quickly and accurately as possible, with penalties for inaccurate answers.Calculations X100. Same as above, with 100 calculations.Low to High Number Memory. One screen flashes four to eight numbers. Then, on the other screen, you are shown spots in the same formation, and you are to tap, in order, where the lowest to highest numbers were. The screen may flash up to 8 numbers at a time.Head Count. On one screen you are shown a number of people figures. Next, a house comes down and hides them. Figures then enter and exit the house, and, after a few, you are asked how many figures are left in the house. The training exercise has you do this 5 times, it starts out very easy and gets very hard.Reading Aloud. You are timed as you read a short passage aloud. Passages are interesting, and include sections of Dracula, Jack London, the Constitution, etc.Syllable Count. You are shown a number of short phrases, like "A penny saved is a penny earned." and asked to count the number of syllables in each.There are other games, and more games become "unlocked" as you use the program.Plusses and the minuses:I like this program a lot - and I do think that it has helped my attention to detail. I'm getting better at all the activities - I can remember up to 18 words on Word Memory, when I started playing I remembered only 10.The Voice Recognition and writing recognition are better than I expected, but they are far from perfect, and that is the most frustrating thing about the program. For example, in the Stroop Test the DS never understands when I say the word "Blue" (and I am a native English speaker.) So I use 2 player files: one where I say I can speak when I do the Brain Age Check, and one where I say I can't. The age difference in the Brain Age is about 20 years.Also, many times I will write a number or a letter and the DS will think I've written a different number or letter. Many of these tasks are timed, so I am trying to write quickly, and it'll think, for example, that a "5" is a "4", or an "L" is a "C", and then I get penalized for wrong answers. (On the bright side: this is a good exercise in persevering in the face of frustration! A whole new product line idea!)Bottom Line: This game is fun, addictive, and might actually have lasting benefits. Not bad for $19.95!

Thinking. Analyzing. Solving Problems. Reading. Logic. These are just some of the skills that Brain Age will help you develop (or re-develop).No, it's not Resident Evil or Splinter Cell. But it is as fun and addictive; it's certainly as challenging if not more challenging, and it's a nice pallet cleanser from the plethora of pure entertainment value games that my kids and I play.Brain Age is a bit advanced at times for my grade schoolers, but the parts that they do get really help them develop the skills that they are concurrently working on in school. Big Brain Academy is a much easier (not better) alternative for younger children.There's a daily training area that gives your skills a workout. And there's a test area that challenges you to quickly and accurately work through various tasks, then provides you with a calculation of your Brain Age based on how well you did on the test. Sudoku has it's own area to train the brain on number logic.Kids reading this will NO vote me to death for saying this, but this is a great game for parents to get for their kids. It's one of the only ones (Big Brain Academy is the other) that I never take away from my own kids when they've misbehaved or simply just had too much video gaming. They never complain.One word of advice: Brain Age has a hard time recognizing an "8" if you write it the way you'd skate a figure 8; it likes it better when you draw an 8 as two circles on top of each other.Addictive fun. Buy it.

I was new to hand held electronic games before I tried Brain Age and Brain Age 2. I also have Parkinson's. These games seemed an outlet for me to keep my brain alert and help with my eye-to-hand coordination. The exercises are easy, it is the time limits that add challenges. I found them challenging, especially when I inadvertently selected the harder version of a math activity.These games have been beneficial for my needs. Issue I take is with the length of time it takes to move from exercise to the next one. It is frustrating to wait so long to move on. The redundancy is not really warranted. Also, I cannot use the speech feature because I get answers wrong because it doesn't recognize what I said. This is not just me. A friend who does not have Parkinson's has the same problem. Why does this program not allow more options for the stamps. I would recommend this and Brain Age 2 for older persons handicapped or not. I believe it delivers mostly what is advertized.

A fun classic game that I’m excited to play again! Game was advertised new and came in a sealed package. However, the product was very clearly repackaged and used as the game has the previous owner’s save data still on it. Just a heads up if you were expecting a new copy not a used one!