Nintendo Life: Thinking of Nintendo's efforts to capture a more mainstream audience with non-traditional games, the Brain Age series leaps immediately to mind - and then leaps right out again, because we can't seem to concentrate on anything these days. Dr. Ryuta Kawashima, Nintendo's resident neuroscientist, has noticed this too, and has geared this latest Brain Age entry towards improving players' concentration by cultivating their "working memory" with daily Devilish Training exercises.
From the article, "We’re all familiar with the strategies, and most of us are guarded when it comes to them. We’ve been hyper exposed to “before and after” pictures promising easy diets. Our email boxes have been inundated with products promising herbal supplements and treatments to promote penile growth. Snake oil salesmen are everywhere, looking to pray on desperation."
(Editor’s note: In the Postcard Review, members of the Pixelitis staff write small, easily digestible reviews big enough to ‘fit on a postcard’ – hence the title. It can be about the whole experience or just a small piece of the pie. No scores needed.)
"Brain Age Concentration Training is certainly one of the most difficult games to quantify in a review, postcard size or not. While it retains the key elements of gaming: the accomplishment of a certain goal within certain parameters, it is not what one would call a traditional game.
Brain researcher Dr. Ryuta Kawashima has constructed an interactive medium in which to train your brain and (supposedly) keep it healthy. He does so by creating exercises that work out the parts of your brain that control your “working” memory, thereby improving your ability to concentrate. So, with all of these exercises, can Brain Age be considered a game, or is it more like homework?" - Tom Farndon
Worth Playing: "Aside from the useless Relaxation Mode, Brain Age: Concentration Training is a pretty solid entry in the Brain Age series. It doesn't make exceptional use of the 3DS hardware, since the 3-D effect doesn't amount to much when graphics consist of simple shapes and text. The additional challenge of Devilish Mode certainly makes this title interesting enough to check out. The difficulty might put off those who enjoyed the original games, but that barrier to entry eventually dissipates as you put more time into the training exercises. Some of the wonder has worn off after the plethora of copycat titles, but Concentration Training is definitely worth a look."
