Nintendo released the American version of Brain Age yesterday, aimed at players of all ages who want to exercise their brains to keep them in youthful condition. The original Japanese version of the game and its offspring have sold over 4 million copies in that territory (1.9 million of those are the original title in its first month on sale) and was cited prominently in Nintendo president Satoru Iwata's recent keynote at the 2006 Game Developers' Conference.
To hear Iwata tell it, the Brain Age saga began when then-Nintendo executive committee member Atsushi Asada proposed that Nintendo make games that people his age could play. Iwata set the wheels in motion for a prototype title to show Ryuta Kawashima, professor at Tohuku University and the man behind Japan's brain training phenomenon.
Of course, that phenomenon didn't begin with Nintendo — it began with Kawashima.
According to the publisher of the American version of one of Kawashima's books (titled Train Your Brain: 60 Days to a Better Brain), he has been at work on brain research for over 15 years now. In a bid for research funding, he had originally set out to prove that computer and video games were good brain workouts.
That apparently wasn't what he found, though. As gaming blog Kotaku dug up a few weeks ago, Kawashima made some small news over here in 2001 with a study that claimed the computer games of that time stunted brain development. (Of course, as Kotaku notes, the study doesn't contradict anything Kawashima is saying about his brain-training games available today; they were designed specifically to stimulate the brain in ways he believed the typical computer game does not.)
Armed with his research, Kawashima set out to create a brain-training regimen that exercised the brain. Since, he's published four books in Japan, sold to 2 million people, and apparently has a large group of followers who call themselves "Brain-Trainers". Of course, the question remains — without the Kawashima phenomenon, will Brain Age and related titles be as big a seller as it was in Japan?
Nintendo certainly would like it to be. To start, they've hitched Brain Age to the Sudoku train. (As we recently noted, Nintendo is additionally bringing a Sudoku-only title, Sudoku Gridmaster, here in late June.) The original Japanese title didn't feature the number puzzles that have attracted quite the following in the States.
In addition, Nintendo has been going all-out with PR for the title in the past few weeks. Quite prominent in press coverage has been the association with the Toronto Memory Program and Dr. Sharon Cohen, though the association has met with some skepticism from at least one reporter, who noted Cohen "seems uncomfortable with the suggestion that by attaching her name to the product launch she appears to be endorsing the game... Cohen says her hands-on time with the game has been limited." It may be that without Kawashima or another mental exercise bandwagon to jump onto, Brain Age may have a bit of a climb before it reaches juggernaut status outside Japan.
Brain Age should be available in most stores today, and you can pick it up for around $20.