More Brain Exercise with Dr. Kawashima
The Cure for Moldy Brains Everywhere!
Posted September 30, 2010
The surge in popularity in games like Brain Age on the Nintendo DS is directly responsible for their spread across portable platforms including mobile smartphones. Namco has brought their brain stressing title to the iPhone recently, More Brain Exercise with Dr. Kawashima. The presentation of More Brain Exercise is fairly utilitarian in design (like nearly every brain game on the market). The Doc comes out to greet you and the menu system leads you directly into testing your age or the variety of brain stress tests.
The gameplay is familiar to anyone that’s played Brain Age. You have the ability to check the age of your brain once a day. After your brain is scored for the day, you are basically locked out of testing it again. As you continue to check back each day, the game will unlock the 15 mini-games slowly and you have the option of practicing them to improve scoring. This can be achieved by doing the daily Brain Training or going to the Quick Play tab to specifically choose your games.
The mini-games vary in difficulty and are targeted to test different parts of your brain. Most of them are memory based and require recalling the amount of objects as well as their shape or color. I had no problem dominating on remembering facial expressions or the math mini-game, but the umbrella spinning game threw me for a loop. While nine umbrellas are spinning on the screen, you have to determine which ones are spinning either clockwise or counterclockwise. I also had difficulty with the fishing mini-game. It requires you to memorize the type and amount of fish that three different fisherman are catching on the screen.
The game has the ability to store up to 3 profiles, so you can test your brain along with a couple family members or friends. You can also log into the game via Facebook Connect rather than creating a new account. However, an account is needed to see yourself on the leaderboards. Beyond competing on the leaderboard, there’s also a couple multiplayer modes in the mix; Challenge for competing on the same iPhone with local friends and Wireless for competing with up to 4 friends.
If Dr. Kawashima has his way, I’d imagine he’s going to dominate the mobile space and the growing use of Apple products as gaming platforms. Namco’s More Brain Exercise is a solid brain testing tool that is oddly addictive despite the occasionally repetitive mini-game. There were days when I shaved 10 years off my actual age and others when it was embarrassing to even look at the score. My only wish is that the statistics went deeper into the success and failures on the various games. In any case, More Brain Exercise has kept me coming back for more each day, even just for 5 minutes a day to check my new score.
The gameplay is familiar to anyone that’s played Brain Age. You have the ability to check the age of your brain once a day. After your brain is scored for the day, you are basically locked out of testing it again. As you continue to check back each day, the game will unlock the 15 mini-games slowly and you have the option of practicing them to improve scoring. This can be achieved by doing the daily Brain Training or going to the Quick Play tab to specifically choose your games. The mini-games vary in difficulty and are targeted to test different parts of your brain. Most of them are memory based and require recalling the amount of objects as well as their shape or color. I had no problem dominating on remembering facial expressions or the math mini-game, but the umbrella spinning game threw me for a loop. While nine umbrellas are spinning on the screen, you have to determine which ones are spinning either clockwise or counterclockwise. I also had difficulty with the fishing mini-game. It requires you to memorize the type and amount of fish that three different fisherman are catching on the screen.
The game has the ability to store up to 3 profiles, so you can test your brain along with a couple family members or friends. You can also log into the game via Facebook Connect rather than creating a new account. However, an account is needed to see yourself on the leaderboards. Beyond competing on the leaderboard, there’s also a couple multiplayer modes in the mix; Challenge for competing on the same iPhone with local friends and Wireless for competing with up to 4 friends.
Graphics
- The visual engine on the iPhone really doesn’t have much to do other than a variety of simple animations. Animations of the Doc and the actual mini-games are very smooth though. It doesn’t appear if the graphics have been optimized for the iPhone 4 Retina display though.
Audio
- The limited sound work in the title is used with minor sound effects throughout the menu and mini-games. There’s nothing really memorable here, but it is nice to have the option to turn off the sound at the start of each boot. The only caveat to listening to your own music during the mini-games is that they really require concentration to complete 100%.
Conclusion
If Dr. Kawashima has his way, I’d imagine he’s going to dominate the mobile space and the growing use of Apple products as gaming platforms. Namco’s More Brain Exercise is a solid brain testing tool that is oddly addictive despite the occasionally repetitive mini-game. There were days when I shaved 10 years off my actual age and others when it was embarrassing to even look at the score. My only wish is that the statistics went deeper into the success and failures on the various games. In any case, More Brain Exercise has kept me coming back for more each day, even just for 5 minutes a day to check my new score.