Common Sense Media Review
By Jinny Gudmundsen
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Brainteasers for everyone from grandma to junior.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 9+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Play
What's It About?
Dr. Ryuta Kawashima, the famous floating head from the original BRAIN AGE, is back with 15 new grey matter-flexing puzzles. During your first training session, Kawashima measures your current brain age by having you play a variation of the game Rock, Paper, Scissors, using the Nintendo DS microphone to respond. The idea behind Brain Age 2 is that you should play a few of the 15 brain games every day to keep your cortex sharp; if you play one game a day, you will earn a stamp on the doctor's calendar. The brain games are very different from the group introduced in the first game -- here you will make change, solve word scrambles, learn to read music to play the piano, and see how many numbers you can memorize in two minutes.
Is It Any Good?
Brain Age 2's intriguing games are also fun to explore with others using the wireless download feature of the DS. Up to 16 people can compete using only one game card if they own separate DS units. There are three brain games available for this multi-person brain bash.
In addition to the brain games, Brain Age 2 comes with 100 Sudoku puzzles, making it a great game to have when you have time to kill. While inconsistent voice recognition can mess up the initial brain age testing, the rest of the games work well using writing recognition. Kids have to be old enough to know how to make change, spell well, tell time, and compute math facts to play these games.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about which brain games they like best and why. Do you like the ones you are best at? Or are certain kinds more fun to play regardless of your score?
Do you think brains need a workout like bodies do?
Game Details
- Platform : Nintendo DS
- Subjects : Language & Reading : following directions , reading , vocabulary , Math : arithmetic , numbers , shapes
- Skills : Thinking & Reasoning : logic , memorization , problem solving
- Pricing structure :
- Available online? : Not available online
- Publisher : Nintendo
- Release date : August 22, 2007
- Genre : Puzzle
- ESRB rating :
- Last updated : September 26, 2024
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