Nintendo has announced a new Brain Age game, bringing the brain-training series to the Switch for the first time. The phenomenally popular Brain Age games for Nintendo DS starred Japanese neuroscientist Dr. Ryuta Kawashima and featured various simple puzzles designed to help keep your brain active. Also sudoku.
The latest entry has only been confirmed in Japan so far, where it’s called “Train Your Brain: Nintendo Switch Training for Adults,” which is the same title as the original DS game only with the platform swapped out. The original DS game was called Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day! in the US and Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain? in PAL regions.
Based on Nintendo’s trailer, the new game will lean hard on the Switch’s unique functionality. For example, one game sees you use the right Joy-Con’s IR camera to scan your hand so that you can deliberately lose a game of rock-paper-scissors. Others focus on local competitive play with detached controllers.
Much of the rest of the game appears to be designed to be played with the Switch in vertical orientation alongside an included stylus. You can also set the game to send notifications and reminders to your system when docked, buzzing the controller and flashing the home button’s LED (which, as far as I know, has never been used before). This doesn’t look like a game that’ll work well with the new Switch Lite.
Train Your Brain: Nintendo Switch Training for Adults will be released in Japan on December 27th, costing 3,480 yen for a physical version with the included stylus or 2,680 yen for the downloadable version.
