The game included in this package is Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day. This game is especially attractive to baby boomers who want to make sure that they maintain their mental skills as they age. However, it can be played by anyone wishing to sharpen their brain power and has become quite popular.

Like all Nintendo DS games, the game comes in a plastic case similar in size to a CD. The game cartridge itself is much smaller. It measures only about 1 ¼” x 1 3/8” (31.75 mm x 34.92 mm). Figure 8 shows the Brain Age box and the cartridge which you will find inside the box.

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Figure 8: The Brain Age box and the cartridge without the package.

This Brain Age game actually is nothing like a traditional video game. There are no guns or fast moving targets. Instead the game is a series of quick mental exercises that were devised by a Japanese neurologist. Brain Age takes advantage of the Nintendo DS touch screen and built-in microphone, so it is very easy to play. Everything is explained on the screen as you move through the exercises.

Although there is reading, writing, logic, memory, analysis, and math, the exercises are not boring. In fact, they are very fast-paced. Some of the games sound easy, but are really quite tricky. For instance, in one exercise you try to give name of a color written when the word itself is a different color. You are to say the color of the word rather than the word itself which is the name of a different color. It sounds easy, but you can get tripped up quite quickly.

When you finish the first short series of mental challenges, your “Brain Age” is given. We haven’t found anyone whose first brain age score wasn’t older than they wanted it to be. Yet, with daily use of the game, everyone’s brain age seems to improve. That fact alone makes it addictive. You want to play every day just to improve your brain age.