Vincent

I love the game. I got it three days ago and I started out at 60. As of last night, I'm 40. Real age is 21.

It's interesting how reviewers want to debate whether or not the game actually makes one smarter. It claims to, and it's based on the research of a famous neuroscientist, and it's fun. And it costs $20. What more could you possibly want?

It would be cool to see somebody who's never played the game before take an IQ test and then play the game until their brain age is 20 and take another IQ test. I actually wanted to do something like that myself but I've been training too much, so results might be a bit skewed...any takers?

@ 51,

You're right, you're absolutely right. Being given the freedom to do something does not necessarily put a person in the right for exercising that freedom in a truly vile way. However, Navarette is calling into question that freedom by searching out the author with the intention of a lawsuit. If he calls it into question for one person, he calls it into question for the rest of the citizens of the United States.

And he's not going to win, if he actually finds the author(s) of the game. Precedents in this respect have already been set--many times. To seek a lawsuit--and the associated publicity--is ridiculous.

Stereotyping is funny, usually. How many comedians, regardless of ethnicity, do you see on stage on major cable networks making fun of their own (and others'!) ethnicity based purely upon stereotypes?

Racism, however, is not funny. Not in the least. I'm a white male from the suburbs--not really affected by immigration issues--and even I found this game offensive. It's ridiculous and idiotic and bigotous--it goes as far as using racial slurs, showing the maturity of the author and his (or her?) racist agenda.

Navarette, however, is out of line and fighting a crusade that he won't win. There have been many, many cases of this nature in US history, and most rule in favor freedom of speech rather than the offended person's feelings. He should be more upset at the insensitive sod that e-mailed it to him in the first place, not the faceless developer who created the piece of crap.

However un-funny the 'game' might be, and however offensive it actually is to many, the author(s) had the right to create it, by law, and that right has been upheld many, many times. To sue them for exercising that right is to call into question some very basic principles and rights most people in the US exercise in one way or another on a daily basis. He can be offended all he wants, and shout and cry about the racism in the game, but nothing can be done about the fact that it was made.

Hah, Joby, that's how people in my drawing/painting classes always describe the models who are overweight. A little too many REUBENS, perhaps? Get it? Ehh? EHH?! HAR!!

...mmm, Reuben sandwiches...

...In high school, the kids that played games had a pretty normal weight distribution--maybe 10% of us were overweight. And now, among my friends and I (all of us gamers), we're all healthy.

The fat little kids that you see running around with GBAs at the mall are not overweight because of games. The CDC is scapegoating, just like everybody else (violent videogames, anyone?). They're fat because their parents never give them the impetus to exercise or eat anything but processed foods. I'm all for getting kids out and exercising--my mom never let me stay inside when I was little, if it was sunny out--but to make the generalization that all gamers are fat is incorrect and propagandistic. Videogames share equally the weight of other methods by which parents easily distract their children to occupy them for just ten more minutes (like television or junk food), while they do parentey things (like drink). They're a tool of distraction, because that's how parents use them, NOT because that's what they're meant to be--and they're certainly not the reason kids get fat.

I just find it rather annoying that I play videogames rather frequently, and I'm not overweight. My brothers all play videogames, and they're all fit. My friends, who are 20- and 30-somethings and play videogames--yep, fit, normal young people as well. If the CDC wants to blame something for obesity, they need to blame the culture of malaise we've developed, and the dependence we have on processed, readily available foods. We have a very unhealthy nation in general. Videogames are the very least of America's problems.