New Brain Training next month News

You're not getting any younger. Or are you? Best ask Dr. Kawashima, who's back with another round of braining training next month on Nintendo DS. "More Brain Training from Dr. Kawashima: How Old Is Your Brain?" is due out on 29th June.

The original is a global sensation even by Nintendo's standards, with over 12 million units of the game - which didn't even take that long to develop - sold since its inception. The concept's simple: take a few quick and mostly enjoyable tests every day, compare performance over time, and allow the game to calculate your brain age.

More Brain Training predictably promises more of the same - more quick-fire maths, more holding the DS like a book, more daily bursts of 5-to-10-minute brain training, and over 100 new sudoku puzzles for people who enjoyed that bit of the first one.

The revised brain age check still uses three randomly selected exercises, but new options include a Rock, Paper, Scissors game where you have to quickly identify which of the three wins or loses against the object shown on the screen.

There's also Memorise 5x5 (remember the position of numbers), Speedy Symbols (which challenges your memory of symbols associated with numbers), Correct Change (work out money left over from a transaction) and Masterpiece Recital (follow sheet music by pressing piano keys on the touch-screen).

Multiplayer is back too, with two-to-16-player support for Word Scramble, Memorise 5x5 and Correct Change, and the option for between three and 16 players to draw pictures and compare artistic skills.

We'll be sure to get our heads round it (and vice versa) at the earlier opportunity. In the meantime, why not remind yourself why the original was so good with our Brain Training DS review elsewhere on the site?