Once the original Brain Age hit the world like a ton of bricks, it became a cultural phenomenon. Now, its time for the inevitable sequel: Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day. Just when you think your brain will be getting something new, it should start to think again. The sequel brings...nothing new to the table. Brain Age fans, prepare yourself for more flexing of that prefrontal cortex because you’ll be hit with more simple tasks that activate certain parts of that brain of yours. Oh, yeah, and the floating, disembodied head of Dr. Ryuta Kawashima is back in all its glory.
The premise of the game is dreadfully simple: you play through different daily activities and depending on how often you train, your brain’s age will either suffer or succeed. The game offers ten different activities that help you activate your prefrontal cortex. The actual brain age check consists of either three randomly selected stylus-operated activities or rounds of Rock, Paper, Scissors via speaking into the microphone. All of your results are recorded on a handy little chart in your own personal file which allows you to have your own stamp (which is used to mark off on the game’s calender which days you’ve trained) after some days of training.
The only big differences between the original and the sequel are a change of activities to play, more Sudoku puzzles, and a few multiplayer modes. Games like Math Recall, which has you performing simple mathematic equations on the spot and Piano Player, which will get you hitting certain keys on a piano during a randomly chosen song are going to be a part of your daily training. Once you train daily for a certain number of days, you’ll eventually unlock extra modes, fun brain tips, and a Dr.Mario-esque type of relaxing mini-game to keep the replay value high. Generally, each activity you play is fun and engaging and will keep you coming back for some time until you’ve finally reached the ideal brain age: 20.
Besides the main Daily Training mode, you can play 100 brand-new Sudoku puzzles or have wireless multiplayer matches with up to 16 people and see who’s the stupidest and smartest of the group. Other than these basic play modes,
Brain Age 2 doesn’t have much more going for it. No
Brain Age game is too keen on high-end graphics, so what simple effects you see get the job done perfectly. As for sound, it doesn’t play too big of a role in the overall game. It does its job during games like Piano Player and Word Blend, which asks you to listen to jumbled words and figure out what was actually said. While still doing its job, sometimes the DS can’t interpret whatever it is you’re writing. As a result, you’ll either put the wrong answer, or you’ll lose time erasing the wrong answer and writing the correct one.
