Posts with tag brainage
Posted Sep 26th 2007 9:00AM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: DS Daily
You may notice a little bit more swagger in our writing style-- it's the confidence that comes from having a youthful, energetic brain. Yes, we've been playing
Brain Age 2, tapping on piano keys and unscrambling words
and remembering big groups of numbers with the best of them.
One thing that bothers us a bit about
Brain Age and its sequel is the
daily-play design. Sometimes we like that we can fit a satisfying gaming experience into just a few minutes, but sometimes we have two hours to kill playing games, and we want to play
Brain Age. While you can train all you want, you can only make so much "progress" in one day, due to artificial constraints. If one can even be said to make progress in a nontraditional game like
Brain Age, that is.
What about you? Do you like it when games feed you pre-measured portions of game time? Or do you really hate running out of stuff to do?
Posted Sep 2nd 2007 10:30AM by Alisha Karabinus
Filed under: DS Daily
No, really, let's talk about whatever you want. It's Sunday, and for those of us in the U.S., it's a holiday weekend, so it's a good time to relax and discuss ... whatever. Like online petitions, for instance -- we get a lot of those. Do you guys believe they can ever do any good? We don't have to be serious, either. Doing much gaming this weekend, or spending the time outside? Anyone else getting tired of the heat and feel the urge to just stay in side and raise that brain age? Or, if you're in the mood to make requests, let us know what we're not talking about enough.
Posted Aug 26th 2007 9:00PM by Eric Caoili
Filed under: Fan stuff, Features, Imports
Promotional Consideration is a weekly feature about the Nintendo DS advertisements you usually flip past, change the channel on, or just tune out.
Those of you lucky enough to live in a city with a rapid transit system have likely seen at least one ad for a handheld game during your commutes. After all, what better audience to advertise a portable title to than people who're trapped in a high-speed steel car full of strangers while they wait to be ferried from one spot to another?
In honor of
Brain Age 2's release in the states last week, we'll be looking at a few ads we found for Nintendo's educational software that've appeared in transit stations in countries like Canada and France. Join us past the post break for this week's edition of Promotional Consideration.
Continue reading Promotional Consideration: Underground Brain Training
Posted Aug 21st 2007 9:00AM by Alisha Karabinus
Filed under: DS Daily
Even the best games sometimes have flaws, though we often gloss over them when trying to sell our friends on our favorites. But today is a day for honesty (because, uh, we said so), so we thought we might discuss those flies in the ointment. From issues with "blue" in
Brain Age to
Trauma Center adding even
more difficulty when arbitrarily deciding you've done something wrong, we've seen dark spots in even the best of what the DS has to offer. Of course, that leads to another question: could that explain why, despite all of the great games on our favorite handheld, the reviews often seem a little
lower, on average, than games for other systems? Or is there another reason that you suspect?
Posted Aug 20th 2007 4:30PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News
Nintendo's list of playable Wii games at this year's
Penny Arcade Expo may be somewhat lacking--
Fire Emblem and stuff that's already out-- but there's enough of interest on the DS to keep us occupied. We're
very excited that the new
Zelda game will be on display, as it's been getting some extremely positive reactions. We also look forward to some exposure to the
exiled Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol, as well as the
sequel to
DK King of Swing. But for us, the real draw is
Flash Focus. Because we're weird and we tend to go for the
weird experiences! The first-party DS games playable at PAX include:
- The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
- Brain Age 2
- Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol
- DK Jungle Climber
- Flash Focus
We're hoping the third-party DS games include the following:
- Contra 4
- Contra 4
- Contra 4
- Contra 4
- Barnyard Blast
We'll be at PAX this weekend, doing our best to keep our social anxiety under control, having panic attacks, and maybe playing some games or something.
[Via
GoNintendo]
Posted Aug 7th 2007 1:10PM by David Hinkle
Filed under: News
Despite
popping up and
going away at various online retailers, the
Brain Age 2 bundle is here to stay. And, considering we were thinking about
replacing our worn DS Lite anyway, this comes as very welcome news. Those of you looking to pick up this bundle may do so come August 21st for $149.99, when the game releases.
The bundle still has as of yet to be listed through various online retailers again at the time of this report. We'll be keeping our eye out, though.
Posted Jul 24th 2007 12:35PM by David Hinkle
Filed under: News
Promoting
Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day!, these nurses you see above were on-hand at the beaches in Greece, providing beach-goers with an opportunity to test their brain's age while soaking up some sun. Seems like a cool marketing idea, but why go with the whole nurse theme? Personally, we think it would've been better if Nintendo flew Dr. Kawashima over to the beaches of Greece and had him approach folks with the DS ...
wearing a Speedo.
On second thought, maybe that isn't the best idea. Carry on, Nintendo ...
[Via
N+]
Posted Jul 20th 2007 2:50PM by David Hinkle
Filed under: News, Accessories
Sure, we've seen the two
new colors Japanese consumers are getting their hands on, however a third and more appealing (to us, anyway) color has emerged from the ashes of
E3. A red and black DS, which is red on the top clamshell piece and black throughout the remainder of the handheld, is only to be included in special bundles along with Nintendo's upcoming sequel
Brain Age 2.
In checking around the internet, we found a bundle of the new color is already being
made available to Canadian folks via retailer Future Shop, where they can pick up the new DS Lite, along with
Brain Age 2, for a cool $159.99 (or $152.67 USD). The bundle even comes with a carrying case, which we're not sure is to be included in other bundles, as well.
Posted Jul 16th 2007 11:30AM by Alisha Karabinus
Filed under: News
We hate to break it to you -- but if you're in the U.S., there are no new DS games this week. And here we were all coasting on a post-E3 high, too, stuffed with news and excitement. Sigh. Guess we'll just have to ogle the releases around the world, then. Collect your oglin' glasses and hit the jump!
Continue reading DS releases for the week of July 16th
Posted Jul 16th 2007 9:00AM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: DS Daily
With
Brain Age 2 on the way, we thought we'd start helping everyone limber up mentally, in the most meta way we could think of.
Let's come up with new
Brain Age challenges! They may increase bloodflow to the prefrontal cortex, or they may not-- we have no idea! We'll get you started with some examples:
- You have two minutes to write as many jokes as you can about Dr. Kawashima's mama!
- Calculate Nintendo's profits based on a given number of Brain Age sales!
- How well can you remember the lyrics to Kris Kross's Sprite jingle?
Posted Jul 7th 2007 10:00AM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: DS Daily
Ever lie about what you're playing? Say, for instance, you're playing
Pokemon, which is widely regarded among the non-gaming population (and certain contingents of the gaming population) as
for babies, and you, as a non-baby, are asked what's in your DS by a friend.
Do you say something distinctly un-baby-like, like
Brain Age or the tough-sounding
Tank Beat? Or do you stay true to yourself and happily announce that you're training your new Wurmple? Are there other situations in which you consider lying? If, for example, you
are playing
Brain Age and you're accosted by a gamer friend who hasn't joined the non-game revolution? Or if some bloggers
survey their audience and you're playing something that you don't think is appropriately cool?
Posted Jul 3rd 2007 1:10PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: Imports
Imagine an alternate universe in which arcades not only
exist, but are still stocked with new games. Now imagine that one of the biggest and most impressive-looking units in the place is a
brain training game. As you may have guessed, it's not an alternate universe! You know, because the coverage on this site is limited to just the one universe.
Minna de Kitaeru Zenno Training is an arcade brain training game released in late 2006 by Bandai Namco, created under the supervision of the smartest disembodied head we know, Dr. Ryuta
Kawashima. Much like
Brain Age, it uses a touch screen to present simple mathematical and logical tasks. But
unlike Brain Age,
Zenno Training is on a
huge screen in the middle of a game center.
It's quite amazing how popular brain training has become! We wonder if Bandai Namco expects people to go back to the arcade every day for training. That would be so
diabolical!Posted Jul 3rd 2007 10:40AM by Eric Caoili
Filed under: Rumors
Even with a diminished E3, there's no controlling the wave of rumors that hit the Internet every year before the show. Why fight it? From now until E3 hits, we'll be posting one piece of wild speculation every day. Some may be patently ridiculous, and others just might turn out to be true. Even some of the ridiculous ones might turn out to be true! Rest assured,
everything will be totally made-up and unfounded. Except, of course, when we speak about all the ass Reggie is going to kick. That part? Totally true.
Rumor: The third
Train Your Brain installment,
Brain Age: With a Vengeance, will be announced for a late 2007 release. To keep the non-game series fresh, this third episode will come packed with popular gimmicks like customizable outfits, alternate endings, and a new, sinister villain -- Dark Dr. Kawashima!
Posted Jun 26th 2007 3:05PM by David Hinkle
Filed under: Video
Yesterday, we
brought word that Nicole Kidman would be the new face set to advertise
Brain Age 2, and now we have the ad in which she is featured. The best part of the ad? Her brain age
is junk. Yup, let us all grab our tummies and let loose an earth-shattering laugh, for she has many millions of dollars, but at least we can draw a better Koala bear than she can.
Check out the ad past the break.
Continue reading Nicole Kidman Brain Age 2 ad
Posted Jun 25th 2007 11:50AM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News
Academy Award
winner Nicole Kidman has joined the ranks of the brain-trained. The star of
Practical Magic, Batman Forever, and
Days of Thunder has agreed to become the official face of
More Brain Training (well, the
other official face) in a series of print and television advertisements to be shown across Europe.
"I love the concept that Nintendo is reaching out to new audiences with their self improvement products like Brain Training," Kidman said. "Most importantly, I've quickly found that training my brain is a great way to keep my mind young." Maybe now Nintendo and
Brain Age will finally be able to achieve some success.
*For money.
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