Brain Age is a Nintendo DS game that helps you develop your mental abilities everyday. With a set of mini games, you "train" your brain on a daily basis. Minigames include: reading parts of classic books, calculation games, and the Stroop test. It's also the first Nintendo DS game that you need to turn the console on the side (instead of looking at the screens top/bottom, you look at them left/right). Its Creator is Dr. Ryuta Kawashima of the New Industry Creation Hatchery Center, at Tohoku University.
The main feature of this game is the ability to calculate your "Brain Age" with some tests, and the game also tracks this progress over time. The game also includes some Sudoku puzzles.
This game has been released as Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain? in some parts of the world. The game is identical other than the name and so this guide should work no matter which version you own.
Modes
Quick Play
Play a quick game without loading, or creating, a game profile. Activities for quick play consist of:
- Quick Brain Age Check
This is the stroop test from the full Brain Age Check. In the Stroop Test words appear on the screen in different colours, either in red, blue, yellow or black. You say the colour of the word. there are fifty of these and you are timed. Depending on your time, you are then given a brain age. This test is less precise than the full check, estimating in the 10's rather than 1's.
- Quick Training
Identical to Calculations x20 in Daily Training. Twenty calculations will appear on the screen, you will have to answer them one by one. The calculations will test you to add, subtract, multiply and divide. You will then be told how fast you did the task.
- Quick Sudoku
Sudoku puzzles are given to you at random. Once you complete them you'll be given a time. Although if you make five mistakes then you've failed. Each mistake also adds 20 minutes to your time. Unlike in Sudoku mode, you cannot save & quit here.
Daily Training
Choose a game profile and play the minigames available (unlockables are listed as "???" until you unlock them with enough day stamps).
The activities are:
- Calculations x 20
Consists of 20 rapid fire simple maths problems. An incorrect answer results in 5 seconds being added to your total time.
- Calculations x 100
- Same as above, only with 100 problems instead of 20.
- Hard mode can be unlocked for this activity.
- Choosing hard mode once it's unlocked adds division problems to the mix.
- Reading Aloud
- Consists of reading through an small portion of classical literature as fast as possible. Cheat (or read too fast) and the activity will be aborted. Final score is measured in syllables read per second.
- Low to High
- This activity consists of a number of squares that will briefly (about 1.5 seconds) display numbers. These numbers must then be tapped in order, from lowest to highest. Final score is measured in points.
- Syllable Count
- Activity consists of a random phrase being displayed on the top screen and a writing pad on the touch screen. The number of syllables must then be written on the touch screen. For example, in the pharse, "In for a penny, in for a pound" the correct answer is 9.
- Head Count
- This activity consists of counting people going in and out of a house. To start with, there is a select number of people, these must be counted. A short time later, a house will fall on them. People (which look almost exactly like men's room signs) will then move in and out of the house. After awhile, the people will stop and the number of people remaining in the house must be written down. The activity is divided into 5 sections, with each being harder than the last.
- Hard mode can be unlocked for this activity.
- Choosing hard mode makes the people move faster.
- Triangle Math
- This activity consists of adding and subtracting numbers in a difficult to explain pattern.
- Hard mode can be unlocked for this activity.
- Choosing hard mode adds division and multiplication problems to the mix.
- Time Lapse
- This activity consists of writing down the time difference between 2 clocks.
- Voice Calculation
- This activity consists of answering simple, rapid fire maths problems by voice. Because of the constraints with the voice recognition, answers to the problems are always 1 digit.
Sudoku
To play the classic Sudoku Game.
Multiplayer
Brain Age multiplayer is single card, meaning multiple DSes may play with 1 game card.
- Calculation Battle x30
This is identical to calculations x20, only there are 30 problems and an incorrect answer does not penalize time, however, instead of just skipping the question, the game will simply force you to try again until you get it right.
- Send Demo
The owner of the game can send a quick play demo to another DS. This can be done as many times, to as many DSes as wished.
- Sudoku Download
You can download a Sudoku Puzzle Expansion Pack which will update your cartridge with new Sudoku puzzles in both Intermediate and Advanced sections. To do this go to a DS Download Station and follow the instructions Dr. Kawashima gives you.
Unlockables
By collecting stamps, that you get once you do complete one activity a day in Daily Training mode, you unlock more activites. You already are able to play Calculations x20, Calculations x100 and Reading Aloud activites as soon as you set up an account. Here is how many stamps you'll need to unlock each activity:
1 Stamp Low To High 2 Stamps Head Count 3 Stamps Syllable Count 5 Stamps Tips 7 Stamps Stamp Designer 9 Stamps Hard Head Count 11 Stamps Hard Calculations x100 13 Stamps Triangle Math 15 Stamps Time Lapse 17 Stamps Hard Triangle Math 20 Stamps Voice Calculation