The unfortunate fact about Nintendo’s Brain Age, the first
title in the growing “smarty-pants” game genre for the Nintendo DS, is
that it often made people feel genius in comparison. The
brainteaser-packed title may have enticed millions in sales, but its
failures in execution—including touch-screen errors and a screwy,
color-based microphone challenge—proved that brains would’ve been
better applied to the other side of the DS screen.
Thankfully, Brain Age 2 brightens things up. A sequel better
described as an expansion, it has the look, feel, and basic premise of
the original: You solve puzzles on the touch screen while racing
against the clock; the faster you complete the puzzles, the “younger”
your score. The instructions boast that the game’s challenges, when
used every day, improve thinking processes such as memory. While the
benefit of this is open to debate, studies have proven that
daily puzzle solving is helpful to some extent. Brain Age 2,
much more than the last outing, is better at compelling the repeat play
the doctor (here, a polygonal guy named Ryuta Kawashima) orders.
For starters, the variety reaches beyond last year’s math-heavy
lineup. In Brain Age 2 you play a piano, unscramble jumbled
letters, and sort out calendar dates off the top of your head, among
other things. Just want to play word challenges? You can have them. Do
you like your math disguised in the form of a “give the correct change”
game? Brain Age 2 can set you up—not to mention train you
for a career in retail. The variation is a big improvement, and means
you’ll be less likely to let the game collect dust.
Unfortunately, while Brain Age 2 definitely improves over the
original—including, thankfully, better voice recognition—it
can still be stupid about handwriting. When challenges are all about
speed, watching your ones continually interpreted as fives can lead to
a lot of frustration. My problems were minimal, but a friend nearly
chucked her DS—and others with sloppy handwriting may find
themselves feeling the same.
That aside, Brain Age 2 is worthy of following the doctor’s
orders. Two weeks into my playtime, I may not be feeling noticeably
smarter, but with better, more varied puzzles, the game is amusing
enough to make long-term “training” at least seem a little less stupid
this time around. 