Nintendo brain training 'no better than pen and paper'

People buying Nintendo DS consoles to give their grey matter a workout with brain training games are wasting their money, a new study shows.

Titles such as Brain Training, More Brain Training and Big Brain Academy, which cost $50 on top of the $200 DS handheld, are no better than a pen and paper at stimulating memory and improving brain power, a study of 10-year-old children by the University of Rennes in France has found.

Nintendo claims in its advertising for the games - which in Britain feature Nicole Kidman - that they "stimulate your brain and give it the workout it needs" to improve blood flow and "practical intelligence".

It also claims the games can improve memory and keep your mind young, reinforced by the fact that players are given a "brain age" when completing the tests, which lowers as performance improves.

In Australia, Nintendo furthered the perception that the games boost memory by announcing it would donate $1 to Alzheimer's Australia for every copy of Brain Training sold.

Market watcher GfK said Brain Training was the seventh best-selling console game in Australia last year, with more than 140,000 units sold.

But the study of 67 10-year-olds found that homework, reading, playing puzzles such as Sudoku and board games such as Scrabble were just as good as, if not better than, the brain training games.

[qface64]

the thing im surprised at is those prices $hit 50 dollars for brain age games??? 200 dollars for a DS??? damn!

[Tony P]

The difference being your kid will actually WANT to play a DS.

[dktxx2]

ya but probably not brain age so much.

[SpoonyRedMage]

Yup. It actually focuses people's attentions and gets them to do the mental exercises.

Plus considering it's basically a digitised versions of the things they listed I'm not surprised.

[Christopher]

Yeah, people actually want to do these brain challenges. They also don't have to look for them in other locations each day, instead can do it from one game each day with it being different each time.

[teh-panda]

I though brain age was ok, I would never buy another thing like it though.

[Montreafart]

No, actually Im not.

Did people actually believe "braintraining" improves IQ or something?

Well, guess all these smartasses werent smart enough to see through the "abdominator 3000 device will help you get into shape with just 2 minutes of training, everyday. Order now!"

Oh pulease. Wii fit, braintraining, wii yoga all that shiat is nothing more than just another fancy "abdominator 3000"

[Baka-akaB]

I dont get the article that much .
the masses can be stupid , but not THAT stupid .
Of course most people know brain training kinda already existed on pen and paper .

Of course they didnt discover sudoku on DS ....

What matters here is the mean of such games . Some didnt want to deal with the paper versions , but are ready and willing to play with the digital ones , because of the hip factor , the comfort of use , and ease of transport .
Is anyone besides some granma really willing to transport a bag full of crossword puzzles and sudoku ?

[SmokingMonkey]

Nintendo is just brilliant at fooling the masses.

Wii Motion Plus anyone?

[NMC2007]

I agree 100% - Next up, Wii Oxygen, breathe into your console for fresh air.

[rhood022]

I'm going to call it now:

Wii Vitality Sensor--- 6 million sold in the first day.

[carajito]

With the Nintendo hating and bashing!!!
Of course .. even the game it self tells you things such as:
Counting Steps .. Counting brush strokes .. Reading a book ..They are all helpful and stimulate the brain.

Like someone said it is just a fun little package and very convinient, but noooo it is an evil plot!!!

People please!

[mshope10]

smokingmonkey do you own motion plus cause it works great in tiger 2010!its one on one just like they said! so before you go talking trash make sure you know what your talking about!yeah you can exercise for free but most peope don't know what to do or they need motivation,or direction thats why wii fit works so well ands sells so well!or did you think the 18 million who bought didn't know they could exercise for free!!!!!!

[SmokingMonkey]

because i think it is a total rip-off.

I'm sure it works great on Tiger10, and everything else (grandSlamTennis) The point i'm trying to make is WiiMotionPlus is what i expected the original wiimote to do what Plus promises. (1:1 right)

How many accessories does one console need!

Wiimote
NunChuk
Classic controller
Wii Fit board
Wii Wheel
Wii blaster/gun
Wii Motion Plus

and now a Vitality Sensor?

Oh and i guarantee they will sell the Wiimote with MotionPlus built in after they have cleared out all the suckers.........again.

[kingdavid]

I agree with your point about wii motion plus. When they announced it I was thinking "err, the original wiimote wasnt precise enough?".

In saying that though, its not really a rip off, its only a 20 buck add on (and it ships with the new tiger game I think). And from what ive heard so far, it seems worth it.

[Ashriel]

Well, it doesn't take a study to know that, since most thing you do in brain age, for example, can be made with pen and paper

[grantps3]

bubbles for you.

nintendo only gets people to buy the wii through games that supposidly help increase IQ or decrease weight.

shaking the wii mote is no healthier for you than wacking off, but you dont have to pay $200/$150 to do it.

wii gives people the illusion of working out and getting smarter, but its not doing anything

[Baka-akaB]

Well wiifit , vitaly sensor etc can easily be avoided if you don't care .

However the wii motion plus is something i'm quite pissed about . I remember people thinking i was trashing the wii or being silly when i complained that not that many games used the wiimote properly , especially too many action and action/adventure games post-zelda (to wich i gave a free pass because he was the first and originally a gamecube game) .

I was shot down often when complaining that too often it didnt matter what moves you made , but what mostly counted was wich button was triggered when waving aimlessly the wiimote .

I also didnt like the lack of precision of the wiimote in both casual and hardcore games , as it was nothing like what was advertised before the wii's launch ...

And now nintendo finally decide to follow through its promises and lies with a pricey addon ? No dice my friends .

I dont buy the BS nintendo fed us about why it wasnt included in the wiimote in the first place . it was never out of concern for prices , as the wii was always quite expensive , and isnt yet going down in prices .

It's simply as it appears imo ... they knew that after some peak was attained through sales , and the dust settled off , it could only go down from there . So they prepared from the get go a few stuff like wii motion to "rekindle the flame" and refurbish new versions of wii sports .

I'll only get it , should i need to replace a remote , and the motion plus get built-in in the future , or packaged with wiimotes .

[na-no-nai]

what a bunch of babies. complaining not gonna do anything. if you dont want it then dont buy it, no one forcing you to buy them are they. and didnt you forget even nintendo said back in 2006 that it wasnt even 1:1

[Enigma_2099]

You don't have to be smart to figure this out. if anything, they're like Wii Fit. Motivational tools... not actual substitutes...

[mshope10]

smokingmonkey you don't have to pay for it if you buy it with wii sports resort!and it's only 10 dollars more with tiger which makes tiger the same price as the ps3 or 360 versions!but i do agree we don't need all these accessories but motion+ takes the control to another level why wouldn't you want that?ps3 and 360 don't come with there new motion controllers but i'am sure everyone won't say a word about that!and first the ps3 had sixaxis and now dualshock 3 and a copycat wiimote and a copycat wiiwheel which i'am not trash talking those things but don't pretend nintendo is the only ones fixing there mistakes!!!

[Shnazzyone]

It seems wierd that they would even do this study and duh... it's based off of pen and paper and life ways to work your brain. I want to know what the comparisons are between alertness in adults who do no training and one doing brain training. I'm sure it will be clear that at least math doesn't suffer.

What i don't understand how people are bringing in Motion+ debate. This is a story about a ds game and mind training. Perhaps wiifit could be brought up but motion +... wtf!?!?.It works and it's been shown it works. there is going to be a time where it will be bundled with games that require it. So all you have to do is pay slightly more for your game but get something nice for that extra 10 bucks.what is there not to like about getting what feels like a whole new system for a game and 10 extra bucks?

Nintendo said themselves... they wanted 1:1 but the tech wasn't there for 2006.. I wish they just put out a wiimote + with the tech built in. But i understand that an low priced add on dongle is actually a much cheaper solution for the consumer then making people have to rebuy their controllers like maybe people had to for dualshock on ps3.