Brain Age 2: Brain Harder. http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/impressionsArt.cfm?artid=13953 I got a chance to play through three different brain training games at Nintendo's display at the Barker Hangar. I must admit, I feel really dumb right now. That is because the games in Brain Age 2 are much more difficult than in the original.
The most challenging one I tried out is the word wheel, where letters to some random word are scrambled on a rotating circle. You need to spell out the word one letter at a time using the game's excellent handwriting recognition to clear it and go to the next word. This is easy enough to do with four- or five-letter words, but when the game throws you more than six, you'll be at a loss. The rotation of the letters makes it very hard to concentrate on them and determine the word, and it took me a minute or more for some of the medium-sized words before I had any clue about what it might be. I just gave up completely when I saw the 8-letter word. It was quite intimidating, but it was also quite challenging, which is ultimately the point of the sequel.
Next up was the rock-paper-scissors voice challenge. The game shows you a hand doing a rock, paper, or scissors throw, and you need to say either what beats it or what loses to it. This is a little tricky because you need to say something other that's what displayed on screen, but it's pretty similar to the color words test in the original Brain Age.
Finally I got to try out the new math training game. Unlike in the original, where you just write in the answer to the math problems, this new version throws a curveball by sometimes scribbling out one or both of the numbers in the equation as the problem scrolls onto the touch screen. You'll need to remember what the number was beforehand, because if you didn't pay attention you'll need to scribble on the touch screen and surrender that question. This new mechanic makes you look ahead a bit more than the first game did, which requires more brain power.
Brain Age 2 is more of the same, only more challenging. If you liked the first you'll like the second. If you thought the first was too easy, you'll appreciate the added challenge. If you didn't care much for the original, you probably won't care about the sequel. But as a daily time waster, it'll be a good thing to have around.
Topic: IMPRESSIONS: Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day (Read 2158 times)
