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Perhaps it was because America's best and brightest Dubyah was claiming that the Japanese prime minister is his "closest buddy in the international community." Perhaps that is why Nintendo's latest series of non-game games that are making an invasion are educational. Games like Brain Age, Big Brain Academy, and Sudoku are designed to sharpen up our dull, over-fed American brains. The brain game fad was well underway when Nintendo actually presented Bush with a Nintendo DS and Brain Age. I wonder if his scores are classified information?I test many puzzle games. I suppose that someone read a statistic that said that women love puzzle games. For the most part the ones I test are inane and not well-planned. The level designs are redundant. There is a difference between a game that has addicting game play and one that is merely repetitive. There is a certain rush to an addictive puzzle game that is similar to the tingle of gambling. Next someone will want to hook me up to electrodes to measure when I am having a good time.
The severed head of the game's mad scientist creator Dr. Ryuta Kawashima gives you encouragement, and instructs you to turn your DS on its side. You use the touch pad vertically in this anything but basic game that teaches you practical skills. You are asked things like "What was the first thing you said today?" Then weeks or months later he expects you to remember what you had for breakfast on Wednesday the 23rd. He also suggests that you should go out to lunch and tells you to try to have a new experience every week. Pretty soon you feel like you are having a relationship with the guy.
What is it that makes a game like Brain Age such a hit? There must be a cliff hanger element, some part of the level design that is tantalizing without being frustrating. In comparison an essential oil has a million constituents, and no synthetic chemical can ever quite capture the true scent of a real flower. In the same way, really great games can't always be reproduced by knock offs that attempt to be copy cats.
Nintendo continues to put out really crazy and innovative games. Believe it or not learning can be fun. I hadn't seen fun educational games since the old titles for the Mac. Once I started to play Brain Age for the Nintendo DS, I couldn't stop. What is it about simple things that can be so challenging?
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