"Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day" / "More Brain Training from Dr. Kawashima: How Old is Your Brain?" - Review part 2

When you have finished your daily training, you can now play Germ Buster, a new mini game to help relax your brain after all that hard training. Coloured capsules will fall from the top of the screen. Simply rotate the colours to form four in a row, either horizontally or vertically and then they will disappear. Points are given each time you eliminate a germ. 

The excellent Sudoku also makes a comeback. Aside from offering a slew of new puzzles to solve in basic, intermediate and advanced difficulties, Sudoku is pretty much the same as the original. Strangely, unlike the original Brain Training, this time Sudoku does not notify you if you beat your best time. Still, this remains possibly the best implementation of Sudoku on the DS, which certainly isn't bad for a bonus. 

Confused? You won't be after the Doc explains...

Given all the above, it would not take a genius to work out that More Brain Training / Brain Age 2 is a great little package. Delving into the download mode, we were delighted to find out that the slightly boring multi-player mode that Brain Training offered has been significantly enhanced this time around. With just one copy of the game you can link up to 16 other DS's. The multi-player games on offer this time are 'Correct Change', 'Word Scramble', 'Memorise 5x5' and a picture drawing game. It is perhaps a shame that more of the exercises weren't available in multi-player mode, but the games offered work very well. They give the older, wiser parents a chance to get one up on their younger, video-game playing children who might usually beat them at multi-player games.

So, to the final score. More Brain Training is certainly an improvement over the original, which we already scored highly. No doubt most of you have peeked at the score already, and video-game purists might scoff at the score, claiming that the game is nothing more than a bunch of simple mini-games. Nevertheless, the score stands because this is a game card that will keep many DS owners playing for months, maybe even years. It's presentation is flawless and its execution almost perfect. 9 is the only score that springs to mind, a true stroke of genius!

9/10

Adjusted Scores

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