Professor Kawashima's Brain Training - Nintendo DS

[Guest]

[Geek Boy]

Anyone else bought this?  It's really quite good.  And although I've never played Sudoku before, I completed my first puzzle in 15 mins 36 secs which gave me a "Train Speed" rating!

The mental arithmetic throws simple problems at you and you have to write the answer on the touch screen as fast as possible.  It times how long you take to complete the task and you get a 5 sec penalty for any you get wrong.  The basic level is 20 problems but the next is 100!

And the colour game is confusing - There are four colours as words and you have to shout out the colour you see.  But if the word "Red" is shown in black, you have to say "black".  It caught me out a few times 

There's also a reading game where you have to read a passage from a book and a memory game where you see some numbers for about 2 seconds.  You have to remember where they were and touch the empty boxes on the touchscreen in the same place you saw them on the normal screen - but in ascending order.

More types of puzzle are opened up as you progress each day.

Oh, and you hold the DS sideways with the touchscreen on the right...

[Roz]

Yeah I do love this too. I am particularly impressed by how rapidly it picks up that you are doing well and toughens the game for you (think of that one where it flashes up the numbers for you to remember and instantly makes it much harder... blink in that game and you've lost ).

I thought I was doing well until my Mum caught me playing on the simple calculations one and said all the answers so fast that I felt really rather stupid... well I'm a child of the 80s... calculators have always just been there but I can do calculus in my head... honest

Lowest brain age so far -23 (I'm 26 so it's not so bad). First brain age assessment - 65

[Morningangel-Iola]

I saw this were I work and thought it looked really good (they showed it on 'This Morning' a while back). Although I can't buy it as I don't have the DS (or any Nintendo)

[Roz]

Oh it's really good. Grannies in Japan are buying DSes for it

[Morningangel-Iola]

Its a bit out of my budget even with staff discount

[Geek Boy]

My first brain assessment was 48 - and I'm 40!  But it went up to 57 when I tried it again yesterday - spot the thickie...

Got the Sudoku down to 13 mins 25 sec though so I'm quite pleased with that.  Usually I don't have the patience for that type of game but it's pretty engrossing.

My mental arithmetic is absolutely hopeless but from the 100 calculations I'm averaging 5 incorrect answers so maybe not as bad as I thought.  I do find that the handwriting recognition can sometimes go awry and I've suffered a couple of incorrect answers as a result.

I opened up the "count the people in the house" puzzles today which really threw me towards the end - it speeds up very quickly!

[Morningangel-Iola]

Its a bit out of my budget even with staff discount

Well I am going to get one. Mum and I are going to go halfers on it we're planning to get the pink consol so we get the doggies too

[Roz]

Ooh - Dawn - check that you get the DS lite - it's much nicer and the screen is infinitely better. Even if you can get a really really good deal on the DS normal I'd think twice about it.

GB try eating a banana a bit before you do your daily test (certainly don't do it when you are tired/hungry or you'll only scare yourself) - why am I getting flashbacks of "when Eric eats a banana..."?

[Morningangel-Iola]

I don't think it is, but we want the pink one, I don't think we will be on it ALL the time.

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5679467/Trail/C%24cip%3D42746.Video%2Bgames%3EC%24cip%3D42763.Nintendo%2BDS%3EC%24cip%3D42765.Nintendo%2BDS%2Bconsoles.htm

Banana? What about fish thats supposed to be good for the brain. I have been eating some fish as I have got my exam on the tenth

[Roz]

Yeah fish would be better for the brain, but a banana is easier

This is the pink DS lite, but only the black and white are available here at the mo

[Morningangel-Iola]

Maybe banana and fish ewww lol

I think for once in my life I will go for looks over performance, like I said I am not sure how much we will use it. I'm not a great games person, my PS2 gets used more often for DVDs then actual games. I've either got study, surfing or stories on the go and I am sure my readers (Sharon and Anna) would rather I continued with the stories;)

I was just thinking of a bit more brain power before my exam any little can help:

[pinksamstar]

i completely hated games until i got my ds lol, now im obsessed, i love brain training, does anyone else have trouble prononcing the colours? whenever i do the stroop test it never recognises my voice saying 'blue' so i end up screaming at it  my bofriend pronounces it 'blu' i reckon we have dodgy black country accents 
ive got my age down to 23 and im 22 so im pretty chuffed lol, have you guys opened the maths game where you say the answers instead of writing it? erghh hurts my head 

[Roz]

i completely hated games until i got my ds lol, now im obsessed, i love brain training, does anyone else have trouble prononcing the colours? whenever i do the stroop test it never recognises my voice saying 'blue' so i end up screaming at it  my bofriend pronounces it 'blu' i reckon we have dodgy black country accents 

I either say them in French (heavens knows why but it works better ) or I just tell it that I'm somewhere quiet where I can't speak outloud (then it doesn't give you that challenge).

[pinksamstar]

in french1 thats genius! i just end up shouting until it understands me  i tell it i cant speak sometimes but i like the challenge of 'will it understand me this time........' 

[Morningangel-Iola]

Its usually ok with me but my mum sometimes has problems. I usually say I can't speak even if I can. I'm just 5 years away from my real age at the moment.