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April 11, 2006

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April 6, 2006

Jason Hill reports on a new game plan designed for oldies.

Use it or lose it - a new Nintendo game is designed to keep the mind sharp.

BEST known for frivolous family fun, Nintendo now wants us to use games to keep our minds sharp and even combat senility.

Nintendo's Brain Training for the hand-held DS console presents users with a series of maths and language challenges created by acclaimed scientist and author Professor Ryuta Kawashima. The game then calculates your "brain age" based on accuracy and speed.

By monitoring blood flow, Professor Kawashima discovered reading, writing and arithmetic were some of the brain's most taxing activities.

"(The professor) feels that the brain is a muscle like anything else," Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto says. "If you don't use it, it's going to get flabby and out of shape, so he created brain exercises so people can stay nimble."

Brain Training uses the DS touch panel and voice recognition. Play is restricted to only 10 minutes per day, but Mr Miyamoto says regular use can help "train your brain so it can become younger".

Already a multimillion seller in Japan, Brain Training is being used in Japanese hospitals to assist patient rehabilitation.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata says "the primary objective of Nintendo right now is how we can expand the gaming population itself". He was pleased Brain Training was the first game he could give his elderly parents.

Mr Iwata says Nintendo may be regarded as "weird" for making brain puzzles while most developers "concentrated on murder, war, excessive violence or car racing", but is determined to attract new users.

"We really do not want to limit the potential customers for Nintendo to the existing market," he says. "We want to include so many current non-gamers, like female and senior audiences."

In contrast to most of today's multimillion-dollar blockbusters developed by huge teams over several years, Brain Training was developed in three months by a small team of eight. It will be released in Australia mid-year.

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