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Exercise your brain and stimulate those grey cells with a wide range of brain training games on the Nintendo DS

Nintendo's philosophy with the DS has always been about reaching out to the widest audience possible. With this in mind, they created the "Brain Training" genre. These games will, in theory at least, exercise your brain, stimulate your mind and improve your concentration, mental arithmetic and memory skills. After the success of the original Dr Kawashima's Brain Training game, lots of other games sprang up on the console that promised to turn us into geniuses with their simple exercises.

Do brain training games really work?
Brain Age packaging
Keep your brain young and sharp, claims the box, but does it?
Much has been said about games that claim to exercise your brain. Some studies seem to show that there is a linkbetween playing games like Brain Training/Brain Age and improved school results, decreased brain aging and increased brain activity. Others are more cynical, claiming there is little or no evidence that playing these games has any benefit. Furthermore, they point out that improvements in your score do not reflect an improvement in your mental ability, more your brains ability to learn and repeat activities.

Whichever side of the debate you stand on, Nintendo makes their official stance clear. They are an entertainment company and these are games designed to entertain. If you find Sudoku and the newspaper crossword to be entertaining, then you may well find brain training games to be entertaining too. Even if these games don't really exercise your brain, as some people adamantly claim, they certainly don't hurt and can be a lot of fun.

What brain training games are available on the DS?

There are now several games available on the DS that all hope to improve your mental abilities. Here are some titles competing for your hearts, minds and hard earned cash:-

Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain? - This is the original mental exercise game that kicked off the craze. This game is known as "Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day!" in the USA and Canada. You can see what we thought about this game by reading our Brain Training review.

More Brain Training from Dr. Kawashima: How Old Is Your Brain? - The sequel to the best selling Brain Training title. This game is known as "Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day" in the USA and Canada. Doctor Kawashima is back again to give your brain an even more invigorating workout. If you want to read our thoughts on this game, check out our More Brain Training review.

Big Brain Academy - Another popular game that promises to exercise your brain. Big Brain Academy focuses more on multiplayer than the Brain Training titles and is almost as popular. Find out what we made of our time  at the academy by reading our Big Brain Academy review.

Best of Tests DS - A budget priced brain game that is presented as a series of quizzes and cryptic questions. Will this title captivate or alienate Brain Training fans? You can find out in our Best of Tests review.

So, as you can see, finding the best brain training games need not be a headache with Lets-Play-DS.com! Our completely impartial reviews and guides will ensure that you choose the best grey-matter enhancing game cards for your DS console. 





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