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Professor: suggesting Brain Age helps is 'charlatanism'

by Chris Greenhough { Jan 26th 2009 at 6:00PM }

Brain Age games don't necessarily make you smarter, and it is "charlatanism" to make such a claim. Those are the conclusions drawn by one Alain Lieury, professor of cognitive psychology at the University of Rennes. The professor's findings were picked up by The Times, which loves itself a good story (from 2006).

Lieury surveyed 67 ten-year-old kids in his study, which compared the impact of Brain Age on intelligence with pencil and paper-based puzzles and going to school (in case anybody was seriously entertaining the thought of homeschooling their child with a DS).

The Times covers the precise results of the study in its article, but the long and short of it is: Brain Age won't help you raise an army of miniature geniuses and take over the free world. Boo. "The Nintendo DS is a technological jewel. As a game it's fine," writes Lieury in his new book, Stimulate Your Neurones. "But it is charlatanism to claim that it is a scientific test."

Which is great and all, but is anybody terribly surprised by this?

Gallery: Brain Age 2

[Via GamePolitics]

Survey: Casual games keep the vices at bay

by David Hinkle { Jun 19th 2008 at 4:15PM }

According to a recent survey conducted by Information Solutions Group (on behalf of casual games company RealGames) shows that casual gaming might be more than just a quick diversion (or frustration, if the game refuses to understand your speech). Other than providing a quick round of Sudoku, that copy of Brain Age 2 could have other health benefits.

The survey asked 4,537 respondents between December 28, 2007 and January 11, 2008 about casual gaming. Of the 4,537 individuals, 2,784 of them said they watched their weight and 60% of those individuals said they use games as a way to keep from snacking and overeating. That's not all, though.

Of the 1,324 survey respondents that said they were smokers, 42% said that gaming provided a distraction from smoking. While the focus of the survey is more about casual games, we do know one title that's pretty good with helping smokers quit. Any of you trying to curb your bad habits with some gaming?

Cosplay in Minutes a Day!

by Eric Caoili { Feb 25th 2008 at 10:30AM }

Here's a cheap, easy costume you can whip up for your next Halloween/convention/boxart-head meetup -- dress up as Dr. Kawashima's disembodied head! Here's all you need:

some white posterboard
a pair of scissors
a sharpie marker
a pair of glasses
an aging Asian man

Flickr user ClockworkGrue spotted this character last weekend at WonderCon 2008. Girls must have swooned over it, as there are lipstick kiss marks all around the Brain Age mascot. Why else do you think he goes around calling himself LL Cool K (Ladies Love Cool Kawashima)? Step past the break for more video game related costumers spotted at Wondercon 2008.

Continued →

Dr. Kawashima too busy being in games to play them or take money for them

by JC Fletcher { Jan 31st 2008 at 12:00PM }

Here's something completely novel: a college professor who is obsessed with his work. Usually Ph.Ds are the kinds of people who can keep sensible hours and leave their work behind at the end of the day -- not the kind of people who ignore everything for research. Not at all.

Dr. Ryuta Kawashima, whose theories about brain exercise (along with his head) make up the basis of Brain Age, isn't that into video games himself -- not even the ones he's literally in. "To hear this may put you off -- but my hobby is work," adding that even if he had time for things like exercise, he would prefer to use the time for research.

His obsession with his own research continues into his family finances. While Kawashima is entitled to split royalties from the game 50/50 with his employer, Tohoku University, Kawashima has not taken any of the money. Instead, he is in the process of building two state-of-the-art laboratories for the university's Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer.

"Everyone in my family is mad at me but I tell them that if they want money, go out and earn it." And it's hard to argue that he's being selfish when the money is going to cancer research. That's got to be hard for the family to argue.

Brain Training big in UK in 2007

by David Hinkle { Jan 9th 2008 at 5:00PM }

Sales data for the year have come in regarding the UK and Nintendo's brain-empowering software on the DS ranked pretty darn high on the list. Both Dr Kawashima's Brain Training and More Brain Training from Dr. Kawashima were on the list, with the first title only being beaten by FIFA 08. You folks in the UK really love your ~~soccer~~ football, eh?

The full list is as follows:

FIFA 08 (EA)
Dr Kawashima's Brain Training (Nintendo)
Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision)
Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (Konami)
More Brain Training from Dr Kawashima (Nintendo)
Halo 3 (Microsoft)
The Simpsons Game (EA)
Wii Play (Nintendo)
Assassin's Creed (Ubisoft)
WWE Smackdown VS Raw 2008 (THQ)

[Via Joystiq]

FIFA, Brain Training best selling UK games in 2007

by Ross Miller { Jan 9th 2008 at 3:00PM }

EA Sports football (or "soccer" for the US audience) title FIFA 08 was the best-selling video game in the United Kingdom last year according to Chart-Track (via GamesIndustry.biz). The game reportedly sold 25% percent more than its closest rival, Dr Kawashima's Brain Training.

Perhaps surprisingly, Microsoft's flagship Halo 3 came in sixth place with only half of FIFA 08's sales. Both FIFA 08 and Halo 3 were released in late September within days of each other. It should be noted that FIFA 08 was a multiplatform title available on six different consoles and the PC. Top ten list after the break.

Continued →

Scientists scold celebrities for promoting Brain Age

by Ross Miller { Jan 3rd 2008 at 11:00PM }

Charitable organization Sense About Science has published its report on celebrities endorsing "scientific mumbo jumbo" that is of debatable merit. While diet pills and skin care lotions are obvious targets, the report (PDF file) also criticized Nicole Kidman and Patrick Stewart, among others, for endorsing Brain Age 2 (also known as More Brain Training in Europe).

Kidman, who also did a commercial for the game, was quoted as saying, "I've quickly found that training my brain is a great way to keep my mind feeling young." Not so, according to Dr. Jason Braithwaite, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Birmingham. Said Braithwaite, "While practice at any task should lead to some form of improvement for that specific task, it is not clear that this improvement reflects anything other than a basic learned process for that specific task."

The Brain Training games have been developed by Ryuta Kawashima, a neuroscientist and professor at Tohoku University in Japan. So which neuroscientist should we trust? That is, of course, debatable, but we'd wager that pushing yourself to do quick math calculations is a fairly healthy recreation. Not seen: a floating, polygonal head of Dr. Braithwaite.

[Update: video fixed]

Dr. Kawashima goes mobile with Namco Bandai brain game

by Ludwig Kietzmann { Dec 12th 2007 at 3:00AM }

Floating head doctor Ryuta Kawashima has once again been called upon to lend his expertise and disembodied features to a brain training game, this time for mobile phones. CVG reports that Namco Bandai's Brain Coach with Dr. Kawashima will use a "scientifically proven series of fun brain training challenges" to exercise and activate several parts of your brain, most likely the ones that shut down whn u rite a txt msg to ur palz.

Brain Coach has only been announced for Japan so far, but given the popular trend kicked off by Nintendo's Brain Training and its intelligent ilk (almost all of it featuring Kawashima), it's unlikely to stay there for very long. Kawashima's constant presence in the genre practically makes him the mental Madden.

Beach nurses promote Brain Age in Greece

by David Hinkle { Jul 24th 2007 at 12:35PM }

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+]

Train your brain in public

by JC Fletcher { Jul 3rd 2007 at 1:10PM }

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!

Conjecture Countdown: 8 days to go

by Eric Caoili { Jul 3rd 2007 at 10:40AM }

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!

Brain Age 2 boxart is BLUUUUUUUUUE

by JC Fletcher { Jun 18th 2007 at 10:00AM }

We don't necessarily make a post about the box design for every new game, but we pretty much had to for Brain Age 2, for the following reasons:

It's a huge game
We are too weak to resist the obvious joke (see title)
hahahaha bluuuuuuuue

We don't know if it's possible to be as excited about the return of Brain Age as the Japanese public continues to be, but we eagerly await the return of our teacher, friend and constant source of Photoshop inspiration, Dr. Ryuta Kawashima's Disembodied Polygonal Head.

[Via GoNintendo]

Toys R Us summer toys list contains up to one video game

by JC Fletcher { Jun 13th 2007 at 10:00AM }

Toys R Us has put out their list of the top 24 hottest toys for this summer, and, surprisingly, there is only one video game on the list-- and even that one's kind of a non-game, according to some people's definitions. Nintendo's brain-teasin' hit Brain Age represents the entirety of our hobby in Toys R Us's summer marketing campaign, despite being a game about math problems, and despite being over a year old. Technically, they also advertise the Leapster, but ... don't worry about the Leapster..

Are we seeing early signs of a Japan-style Brain Age phenomenon? Should we start hoarding DS Lites?

[Via Game|Life]

Japanese hardware sales, May 14 - May 20: Satisfactory edition

by Jason Wishnov { May 26th 2007 at 12:20AM }

Having issues with performance? Can't seem to keep those sales numbers up? Disappointed in your ability to satisfy Japanese schoolchildren? It's okay, Mr. Miyamoto. It's not you, it's just ... you know ... they've seen it all before. They want something new. They need something big, and yours just isn't big enough. But boy, do we have a product for you!

Trust us. With regular use comes a guaranteed increase in size, or your money back! Girls will flock to you, women will be putty in your hands! After all, we've seen the results firsthand. Yes, that's right, we've sunk quite a bit of our own money and time into this product, and we're just absolutely 100% positive you'll start seeing results within a few weeks. And hey, it's not your fault nature didn't give you a little more to work with! So go ahead and start Training Your Brain, Miyamoto-san, and give those women what they really want: your astronomically high IQ.

- DS Lite: 111,213