"Is your brain young or old?" This simple question printed across the front of Brain Age for the Nintendo DS is aimed at the broadest possible audience: anyone with a brain. The box also lets you know that you can "train your brain in minutes a day." Everyone likes to think they're ahead of the curve, and this game gives you a chance to prove it.

Or if it turns out you're not quite as exceptional as you thought, you can remedy the situation by playing a game. It's not intimidating at all. You hold the system much like you would hold a book, use the stylus like you would a pen, and talk to the game through the built-in microphone as if you were ordering food from a drive through (Hey! Did you get that?). Sound interesting? Sound like fun? It's actually a little bit of both.

The first time you play Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day, your "Brain Age" is probably going to be a little older than you'd like… maybe even shockingly older. The first time you take the Stroop Test, which shows you the names of one color written in another color (the word "black" written in red ink, for instance; the correct answer is the color of the word) and asks you to say your answer out loud, your poor brain might be thinking "Hold on, what now?"


When the floating head of a Japanese neuroscientist (Dr. Ryuta Kawashima, whose research is the basis for the game's existence) informs you of the results, you'll be thinking "There's no way I'm that old! I can do better than that!" At that point, a mixture of pride and shame will pretty much obligate you to pick up the title again.

The game provides you with other incentives as well. You'll start off with several available activities. You can take the Stroop test, perform simple calculations as quickly as possible (you'll write the answers on the DS touch screen using the system's stylus), or play "Low to High" (which is a bit like the card game Memory). Before long you'll notice more activities popping up, such as writing down the number of syllables in an old adage or silly phrases. Quick! How many syllables are in this sentence!

Just kidding (well, it was 11). Every day you turn the game on and complete at least one training activity, you get a stamp on your calendar. If you do three activities or more, you get a bigger stamp. The more stamps you collect the more activities and features you unlock, and since your results for each activity are recorded only once per day, you're encouraged to make the game a part of your routine and play a short time every day.