From N-Europe.com:
"NOE: Do you have a message for European users of the software?
HK: It makes me very happy that exercises developed in Japan, including the Hundred Cell Calculation and Division Marathon methods, will be put to good use by users in Europe. But I must also take this opportunity to give proper credit to the incredibly talented educators who originally developed these teaching methods – Hiroshi Kishimoto for the Hundred Cell method and Shunichi Miki for the Division Marathon (Hard) method.
I would love to have users experience the fun of learning together with this software."
What is 4 plus 8? Did you find that fun? If you did then this is a piece of software made for you. I'm pretty sure most of us don't find doing this kind of sum fun. And yet Nintendo in their wisdom have given us a game called Maths Training! Of course, arithmetic is a skill that we all use regularly, so this software can certainly be called useful if it improves our ability to do simple arithmetic quickly and accurately.
Since its launch in 2005, Nintendo's Dr Kawashima's Brain Training has sparked a market phenomenon. According to Nintendo the title, along with its sequel More Brain Training from Dr Kawashima, has sold over 30 million units worldwide, accounting for one in every five DS games purchased.
Such is the success of the Brain Training (or Brain Age in Japan/US) titles, they have become almost synonymous with the company's successful strategy to harness the spending power of casual gamers. With the help of Nicole Kidman and Patrick Stewart, Brain Training has vaulted the DS into new demographics, bringing consoles to the hands of people who would have once eschewed anything containing so much as a microchip.
Wii Fit also caters for this self-improvement market and has met with equally spectacular sales. But while few would question the benefits of games encouraging physical activity, the merits of brain training are not so clear-cut - here, in the second of a two-part series on games and health, Alastair McQueen puzzles over the research.
Pocket Gamer writes:
"It's true that Kageyama covers all of the mathematical bases, but so does a maths textbook – and with roughly the same level of charm. The Professor feels like a musty old maths teacher with a whole pile of tests and answers but nothing in the way of smiles and kind words. By contrast, Kawashima is the hip, young student teacher with stories, advice and even includes some arithmetic practice, too."
Audio/Visual - 6
Gameplay - 6
Value - 7
Innovation - 5
Overall -
