The DS was an immensely popular device, not only for the number of games that it had available on it, but because it offered experiences that, up until that point, were very rare. Those experiences like Nintendogs or Brain Training, brought new players into the world of games, but it has been sometime since they released, so does the latest instalment of Dr Kawashima's Brain Training hold up, or was it simply a fad.

The first thing you need to understand is that this is not a game, at least not in the traditional sense, there is no princess to rescue, no evil overlord to defeat, but it is a tool to help you get the old grey matter a pumping. Due to its more educational nature, it could best be described as edutainment, but don’t let that stop you from enjoying what it is offering, even though I have played entries in the series before, I still found myself coming back for me each day and not because of the floating head of Dr Kawashima. The fun comes down to the challenge of improving your scores on the number of activities and while there are online leaderboards to see where you rank, there is still a sense of satisfaction even when you beat your own previous time, even better when you smash it.

There are a host of activities, some of them have been in previous titles, such as Sudoku, but most of them are new and take proper advantage of the Switch’s unique input options. There is one activity that requires you to select the highest number from the ones displayed on the screen, not a real challenge of course, but at the same time you need to keep the stick figure on the top part of the screen from walking into objects. Keeping an eye on both parts of the screen, is something that could have been done on the DS and 3DS entries, but with a difference in how you interact with the other screen. When it comes to the returning items, calculations is the most common one, having been around since the original and every game since, it is straight forward and will test you on some common and uncommon values.

Of course, as I mentioned before, the latest entry makes use of the Switch and while the bulk of things are done on the screen, turned vertical, it also makes use of the IR camera on the JoyCon. The test you will do first, just to ensure all is working is a simple game of Rock, Paper, Scissors and the challenge is not to do with the hand gestures but getting the camera to detect them properly. The IR camera does a solid job, but you need to ensure your hand is within the right distance of it, as if you are too close or far, the camera can’t distinguish or see, and you will lose. You can opt to not use the IR camera, when doing your brain age check, but as some of the quick play activities make use of it, you will have to adjust. The other issue with it, is holding your hand that holds the JoyCon steady, while your other hand does the actions, this is not an issue for a single session, but if you do multiple activities in a row, you will likely encounter some issues.

There are a host of other activities, like counting up to 120, with more to be unlocked the more you play, there is even a strange version of Dr Mario in there, that requires you to drag the pills into position. The problem is that most of the activities are either one dimensional or require a reliance on an input method that is spotty at best, such as handwriting recognition. The calculations activity, requires you to answer 25 math questions, as fast as you can, the problem is that there are times when the game failed to register my handwriting and you might think that it was just my chicken scribble, but it would do it on a single number, only to accept it later on. The problem is not just numbers, there are times when the game cant distinguish letters you write in the memory activity, for example a lower-case a, is registered as q and while I can understand how some letters might seem similar, but to confuse B and D is odd. The flip side of this is that the game will sometimes ignore the letter you wrote, and transpose it with the correct letter, giving you the pass and while I am ok with it accepting badly shaped letters, swapping letters around entirely is too much. Given that most of the handwriting challenges will be used in the brain check, it is a shame that the score you get, will be dependent on how well the system understands your writing, I mean there was an instance where I wrote ‘fail’ and thought I had written ‘hair’ not quite what I was going for.

The brain check, for those who don’t know is to get your brain to an age of 20, not through time travel or such, but through keeping it active, a common practice for those of advanced year or suffering from Alzheimer’s. You can do the check many times a day, but only your first test is counted, and the game will present you with three randomly selected challenges, though the game will ask if you are able to use the IR Camera. These tests can be short, or long, just depends on what is selected, and the result is that you will get your age and then a breakdown into what areas you are lacking in, as well as those you are succeeding in. Having done a host of them in previous games and now, I fell back into the rhythm quite quickly and enjoyed it, discovering the areas where I was lacking was good as well, as I was able to go back and start picking up the activities that focused on those areas, to attempt to help me out. While I have yet to hit the optimum age, or even one close to my actual age, I am getting ever closer, which I am happy with, it is making an improvement.

On the side of the presentation, the game looks almost the same now as it did with the original game, there is very little that has changed and that is fine. Fancy visuals are not required for what is happening here and I am quite satisfied with that I see when I boot up each day, there are some nice photos included, for one of the games, but most of the game is just black text on white. There is an option to allow for a change in how the game sees how you write your 5, but that is it, no colour options or anything else. There are plenty of titbits of information littered throughout the package, usually dispersed when you complete a challenge, those will be highlighted with red text, for the important parts, like what part of the brain it helps or who came up with the theory or science. One nice aspect of the presentation is that the good Doctor knows the time of day you start up the software, so do it in the morning he will tell you good morning, or late at night and a comment will be made about working late, a nice touch to be sure.

Anyone wants to experience something different should give this a go, even just some of the games are worth a shot, but the benefits to yourself are immeasurable. Dr Kawashima once said, “My hypothesis is that if you can do something easily, it doesn’t place a burden on the brain and therefore does not show the training effect.” Taking a 10 minutes from your day to give this a go is something I can highly recommend, just be sure to be patient with it, as the software has some issues.

At the request of Nintendo, no score has been provided for this review.

Review copy provided by Nintendo