While at one point I considered myself a dedicated gamer, a lack of time has pulled me from the medium. To celebrate my time with games, I will write a review for each new title completed. My reviews are often years after a game’s official release, but consider this a benefit: the extra time allows a game’s content to be digested and allows the review to be free of any marketing hype.

What makes one smarter: the age of your brain or your brain’s weight? While scientists can argue over the superior, gamers can test it out themselves, by playing either Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day or Big Brain Academy, two original Nintendo DS titles created by Nintendo to keep the minds of the elderly sharp.

Both games are full of short mini-games, where the player challenges their mind with questions and activities that test one’s knowledge in math, vocabulary, logic and other areas straight out of school. Rather than mimicking the Q&A section of a school textbook, these brain games present the player with fun gaming experiences, such as counting the number of people who run in and out of a house (Brain Age), or identifying the differences in near-identical cartoon animals (Big Brain Academy). The player’s performance in the minigames is later used to judge the player’s brain’s age (Brain Age) or weight (Big Brain Academy).

Brain Age

The difference in execution between the two titles stands out, with Brain Age beginning with a classy discussion with Dr. Ryuta Kawashima (a famous professor in Japan) and Big Brain Acadamy beginning with a crudely animated worm creature I can only call “Fish Bait.” “Fish Bait” wears a poorly drawn hat for credibility, while Dr. Kawashima wears the glasses of a true intellectual.

The two main characters of each game represent the different design decisions of each title. While Dr. Kawashima, rendered in full 3-D with a variety of expressions, offers players a variety of real-world tips for increasing their intelligence, such as reading street signs while on the train, Big Brain Academy’s “Fish Bait” character repeats the same generic phrases everyday. His text is so derivative it often reads like placeholders that the developers ran out of time to replace. The rushed effort is apparent in Big Brain Academy’s visuals, which are composed of pixel-based over-proportioned animals, and its minigames, which while more varied than Brain Age, are also shorter and less stimulating.

Big Brain Academy

If education takes time, Brain Age wins in a landslide. Most of Brain Age’s quizzes are composed of four minute rounds of deep thought and analysis; Big Brain Academy’s tests are composed of quick five second trigger finger tests. With Big Brain Academy so focused on a player’s reflexes, it’s hard to think of it as a breakthrough in education, rather it’s easier to view it as a same-old reflexes game ala videogames ten years ago, where players were rewarded for hitting the “jump” button at the right time, followed by a timely hit of the “shoot” button. Brain Age should be the weapon of choice for those willing to invest in sharpening their brains; those looking for a less stimulating, but more entertaining, time should give Big Brain Academy a try.

Both Brain Age and Big Brain Academy are packaged with bonus material, including Sudoku and a varied multiplayer mode, respectively. A sequel to Brain Age is also available on Nintendo DS. A revised version of Big Brain Academy is available on the Nintendo Wii.