Brain Age 2 for Nintendo DS ...GET IT!!!!!

Author's Rating:

Pros: educational and really sharpens the mind.

Cons: Might frustrate very young players.

The Bottom Line: 
Here's a game that really sharpens the mind and let's you track progress!

Author's Review
Our daughter is a Nintendo DS player so we saw a lot of the games and played a few with moderate interest. THEN, she gave me the interactive DS Brain Age 2 for Christmas. This game is fantastic. No little characters and adventures ...just pure thinking problems.

40-50 year year olds(as well as studious younger players) should get a real kick out of this game. It challenges your memory and really works at improving your brain's ability to recall numbers!

A few of the challenges include remembering the order of a grid of numbers on a timed test. Your results are stored and your progress is evaluated on an on-going basis. Basic math is covered in a way that used memory; simple math problems are presented in a timed test where each new problem has a digit of the previous problem blacked out. You have to remember what the missing number was!

Word scramble gets a new twist as you try to figure out what a jumble of letters spells. The trick is that the letters are slowly moving in a circle! Again, memory plays a big part.

There are challenges involving money and change-making, music (you actually are taught to read simple sheet music and play along with songs).

You navigate and play the game using the DS stylus "pen". The computer recognized your written letters and numbers on screen and enters your response instantly into the game. A friend who is a longtime Palm organizer user was amazed at the level of recognition the DS player has with the touch screen writer! He said it was more accurate than his Palm unit.

Brain Age 2 has numerous upper levels of memory games that must be "unlocked" by completing the initial levels of play. I still have about five to unlock and have already completed and unlocked several of the upper level games.

Does it help your memory? I would have to say "yes". I was notorious for forgetting phone numbers. However after playing this game almost daily for a month, I noticed my recall on basic things like phone numbers and other daily items had improved.

Nothing miraculous. It's just a inevitable result from exercising the brain to work with organizing numbers and remembering positions of letters and digits on a regular ...and challenging...basis. Phone numbers and basic math just seemed easier after the constant challenges on the game.

I would even recommend it for school age kids who have difficulty in basic math. The game focus is on orgainizing data and remembering the details as you calculate an answer on the various problems.

It has loads of practice games and even has a section on the popular 1-9 number game "Sudoku". I had never played it before, and now really like the game. There are many different Sudoku puzzle levels and a quick tutorial on strategy. Again, it's based on organizing numbers and logically concluding what each space should be.

Everything is played using the stylus pen so if you can write...you can play this game.

Highly recommended!