Have you noticed yourself forgetting things lately? Do you have trouble articulating exactly what you want to say? Well then Dr. Ryuta Kawashima might be able to help you out with his new software for the Nintendo DS. In Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day, the good doctor presents mini-games aimed at activating and engaging all sections of the brain in order to keep it healthy. Whether or not this is actually effective is up to you but one thing is for sure, the idea of Brain Training has swept Japan and looks to do the same in the western world.

From the main menu you’re give several options, the first of which is a trial version of the second which in turn is the main daily training mode of Brain Age. Once you have confirmed some housekeeping details you’ll be tested across a series of three random mini-games to determine your initial Brain Age. After that you’ll be able to train in one of many mini-games initially available or check your Brain Age once again. All unlocked mini-games and the Brain Age test can only be performed once a day as dictated by the DS’ internal clock. So if you want to jump ahead and unlock everything all you need to do is move the DS’s clock a day forward.

The training programs include a wide variety of time based tasks. The first on the list is called Calculations x 20 and requires you to complete multiplication, addition, and subtraction problems as fast as possible. The next unique mini-game simply asks you to read passages from famous books out loud. While most of the games have strict calculations, games like the reading out loud one trust the user and can easily be exploited for better scores. Then there’s counting syllables in a sentence, ordering numbers correctly, triangle math, time lapse, head count, voice calculation, and quite a few more. While most of the games make you feel like you’re back in elementary school doing homework, they are short, easy, and they’re only expected to be played at most once a day.

Once you’ve given your brain a good enough workout you can then of course retest for your Brain Age. The Brain Age test randomly selects three of six mini-games to determine your Brain’s Age. One that I’ve found to be present in every test and that doesn’t seem to be featured in the training mode is called the Stroop Test. The Stroop Test requires you to say the color of the words presented. The catch is that all the words are the names of the four colors used. It’s quite confusing at first but you can have it mastered in a few tries. I’m not sure how high your Brain Age can be but my initial age was 59 and the good doctor says the lowest and best age you can acquire is 20. Apparently 20 is the age at which the brain begins to actually deteriorate.