U.S. brain training to begin this April and May
by Dan Choi 
{ Jan 30th 2006 at 11:30AM }
Brain training is finally making its way to the DS in America with the announcement that Brain Age and
Big Brain Academy will be released on April 17 and May 30 of this year, respectively.For "the first in a series of U.S. brain-training titles," Brain Age will tackle word memorization, counting, and reading, while Academy will handle concepts such as logic, memory, math, and analysis. A version of sudoku will also be included (in at least the first title) where you can fill in the numbers with the DS stylus, effectively killing any prospective sudoku competitors on the dual-screened portable.
Each of the three Brain titles released sold over a million copies in Japan. Selling a couple hundred thousand per week probably helps some, though rebounding sales [at the 19-minute mark] certainly factored in as well. We don't know how effective Nintendo's senior-friendly strategy will be here in America, but if it worked for girls and Nintendogs, anything's possible, right? Get ready for what Reggie Files-Aime calls "a treadmill for the mind" this spring.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Will @ Feb 25th 2006 2:14AM
If the game is marketed as a method to "live forever" or "keep yourself young for as long as you can," you bet your Nintendo stock that Americans will buy into it.
Ask any Baby Boomer what they would do to keep his/her mind sharp in the golden years... the response would be close to "selling my soul to the devil."
Nushio @ Jan 30th 2006 11:50AM
Theres another one, Ultimate Brain Games, I'm not sure about the release date, Gamestop has it for november, but gamespot has it for this wednesday.
Dan Choi @ Jan 30th 2006 11:56AM
Ah, thanks for the heads-up, Nushio. Judging by the current release date, however ("Pre-Release
ETA: 11/1/06"), it isn't gonna get here anytime soon:
http://www.gamestop.com/product.asp?product%5Fid=180030
Jo @ Jan 30th 2006 12:02PM
Awesome, looking forward to these.
pete @ Jan 30th 2006 12:13PM
these are the kinda "games" that the video iPod shouldve come with. minimal-interface-required raw braingames mmmmm
mike @ Jan 30th 2006 1:10PM
when's the language stuff coming out? i wanna do Mandarin on these.
robotplague @ Jan 30th 2006 1:14PM
I'm there...but unfortunately I don't think the US will catch on to these as much as they have overseas.
LunarDuality @ Jan 30th 2006 1:16PM
Actually, "Ultimate Brain Games" is a DS release of the GBA game by the same name. To that end it contains Chess, Checkers, Mahjong, Backgammon, Dominoes, Sink The Ships(aka Battleship), Four-in-a-row(aka Connect Four), Go, and Reversi. All great games (and the single game pack for multiplayer) make this a worthwhile purchase. However, it's not really "exercise" for your brain (as the Brain Training titles are billed), just games that require brainpower to play.
Now, if they'll just tell me when the DS lite is hitting US shores, then I'll know when I can get my learnin' on!
DKNY @ Jan 30th 2006 2:11PM
The question is: Will Nintendo be able to publicize these games in the US the way they have in Japan---really I think that's the question for their whole Touch Generations strategy. It's worked wonders in Japan, in part because a culture with a tradition of pachinko isn't quite so uncomfortable with beeping games, but mostly because of extensive, and very well done advertising. If they can make serious ad buys on network news, general-interest magazines, and other media aimed at boomers, and even more importantly, get some media coverage of the brain benefits of the game, they'll be set, tapping into a big demographic of people over 45 who want to be fit and hip. If they try to sell it to the regular DS crowd, it'll be a novelty.
GlitchCog @ Jan 30th 2006 2:36PM
Yeah, older people in America aren't down with video games like the Japanese are. The average American over 45 years old won't buy this because in their eyes video games are rotting the minds of the youth. Why would they trust this game to not only do the opposite to their brains, but be cool for their age group too?
Andrew Hsieh @ Jan 30th 2006 7:53PM
Why would they trust this game to not only do the opposite to their brains, but be cool for their age group too?
Precisely.
I'm sorry, but in my opinion, this game won't catch on at all in the United States. I mean, do you really see someone in America doing this kind of thing on the New York subway? Probably not.