I admit I gave somewhat short shrift to Brain Age Express: Math in our DSi coverage. Of course, I did note that I enjoy it, but I didn't delve into it as much as I should have. Now that I'm on my fifth training day (yes, I skipped a few), I'm discovering that it's rather more than just a remix—perhaps it should even be called "Brain Age 3".
I did mention that there are new training games in Brain Age Express: Math. I still don't know exactly how many, thanks to Brain Age's daily unlocking system, but I do have both Sum Totaled and By the Numbers available, both brand-new. I also understand from reports that two more previously-released exercises are making a reappearance, and at least one more is brand new.
But Brain Age Express: Math has a few more tricks up its sleeve. The floating polygonal head of Dr. Kawashima told me today I could now play Sum Totaled—a simple game of adding up all the numbers on the screen—in "battle mode". Not knowing what it was, I started it up, finding myself on the FIRST FLOOR of the HOUSE OF DOOM. A stick hero with an answer square for a head stood his ground while monsters made up of numbers to sum came at him; scribbling the sum would defeat each monster. The monsters got pretty creative, too; one large "boss"-like monster with six rotating digits to sum would slowly approach, requiring extra concentration, but before I could get my head totally around him, smaller monsters would swoop in quickly with double digits to fend off, breaking my concentration.
On top of the new games, there's a whole new "themes" mode too. Unlike the past Brain Age games, there's only one save slot now, but you can still get family and friends in on the action, especially here. If you remember the sketches you used to do on a topic in the original Brain Age games, Themes is that again, but now with photography and voice-acting added into the mix; entries for each guest you give the game to are saved and shown in a gallery as well as a little slideshow mode that cycles through all the saved data.
Brain Age Express: Math doesn't amount to a big shakeup to the formula, but then again, neither did Brain Age 2. It is, I think, worth a look to those of you who were fans of the original games.
I did mention that there are new training games in Brain Age Express: Math. I still don't know exactly how many, thanks to Brain Age's daily unlocking system, but I do have both Sum Totaled and By the Numbers available, both brand-new. I also understand from reports that two more previously-released exercises are making a reappearance, and at least one more is brand new.
On top of the new games, there's a whole new "themes" mode too. Unlike the past Brain Age games, there's only one save slot now, but you can still get family and friends in on the action, especially here. If you remember the sketches you used to do on a topic in the original Brain Age games, Themes is that again, but now with photography and voice-acting added into the mix; entries for each guest you give the game to are saved and shown in a gallery as well as a little slideshow mode that cycles through all the saved data.
Brain Age Express: Math doesn't amount to a big shakeup to the formula, but then again, neither did Brain Age 2. It is, I think, worth a look to those of you who were fans of the original games.