Brain Age™: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day

Give your gray matter the workout that it needs to stay sharp and focused. Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day is inspired by the research of Dr. Ryuta Kawashima, a prominent Japanese neuroscientist. His theories revolve around keeping brains stimulated by performing mental activities quickly.

• Brain Age is a series of exercises designed to give brains a workout. Activities include performing math problems, counting people going in and out of a house, drawing pictures on the touch screen and reading classic literature out loud.
• When users start a new game, they will take a series of tests that determine their brain age within the game. This number is called the "DS brain age". As the player uses the software over a series weeks and months, their ability to perform the exercises will improve and their DS brain age will decrease. Progress is charted in graph form.
• Users can keep up to four save files on one game card. Sharing a game allows them to compare their results with those of family and friends. Users also can send a demo version of Brain Age to friends or compete with up to 16 players in a battle to see who can solve math problems the fastest.
• Brain Age also includes more than 100 sudoku puzzles, which are among the most popular types of brain-challenging puzzles in the world.

How to progress: When users first start a new game, they will be given a Brain Age Check that determines the age of their DS brains. Each day, they can compete for the high score in any activities that they have unlocked. They also can check the age of their DS brains once per day. The more training they do, the more activities they will unlock. Brain Age is designed to be played in small chunks over a long period of time and can hold data from a year of activity.

Special features: If users send their friends a wireless demo or have multiple people playing on one game card using DS Download Play, they can compare their scores to see who has the lowest DS brain age.

Brain Age is played with the DS turned sideways to make it feel more like a book.

Planet Puzzle League game for Nintendo DS

• Combining addictive puzzle action with simple touch-screen controls, Planet Puzzle League couldn't be easier to play. Players use the stylus to grab blocks and slide them left and right. If they match three or more blocks of the same color, the blocks will vanish. Form chains and combos to create an avalanche of blocks and rack up high scores.
• Up to four players can battle over local wireless, and two can slug it out over Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. The Wi-Fi Novice mode even lets newcomers learn the ropes in a stress-free environment.
• Planet Puzzle League supports full voice chat over Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Once players and friends have exchanged Friend Codes, they can talk for free while they battle each other. The voice chat feature is also compatible with the Nintendo DS Headset.

How to progress through the game: Planet Puzzle League features different-colored blocks on the playing field, and a two-block cursor that is controlled by the player. The player puts the cursor on blocks and drags left or right with the stylus to swap their positions. When three or more of the same-colored blocks line up, they disappear. Skilled players can use this to match multiple tiles without a break, creating combos and chains for bonus points. If the stack reaches the top of the screen, players have a few seconds before the game ends.

Modes: There are six single-player modes: Puzzle, Endless, Time Attack, Garbage, Clear and Vs. Com. In addition, there is a daily mode where players play three two-minute games each day. This mode tracks a players' overall scores on a graph, letting them view their progress over a period of weeks and months. The game also sports a robust training mode, with dozens of tutorials and demos to experience. Local wireless mode lets up to four players compete in three different games, while the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection mode has the same number of games, but is for two players only.

Special features: Gamers can battle against other players in a wide variety of modes via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Novice mode allows newcomers to the series to try it out in a friendly environment. Once they get enough wins under their belt, they will be unable to access Novice mode. Players also can take on strangers from across the globe, or compare scores with people who share their birthday. Planet Puzzle League also sports full voice chat functionality, so players can talk to their friends while they play (players must exchange Friend Codes to chat).

Nintendo DS Lite Game System

Nintendo DS provides users with a unique game-play experience using features never before offered by any other home console or hand-held game system. This portable personal entertainment and communications unit provides owners with new perspectives on dual screens, new control using both touch and voice, and new connections with two kinds of wireless game play. It's a newfound canvas on which developers can express their creativity.

Dual Screens: Two LCD screens offer one of the most groundbreaking game-play advances ever developed: experiencing a game from two perspectives at once. Imagine the possibilities. In a racing game, drivers might see their own vehicle's perspective on one screen and an overall track view on the other. In a role-playing game, the action could take place on the first screen while the second provides a reference for a player's tools inventory. Game play also could use both screens at once, offering a giant boss for heroes to defeat. In the future, games could be created allowing users to play games on one screen while text messaging other DS users on the other. Each 3-inch screen can reproduce a true 3-D view and is backlit to assure comfortable play in any lighting condition.

Touch Screen: The lower screen will offer something never before provided by any game device: PDA-like touch capabilities. Players no longer have to rely on just buttons to move characters or shift perspectives. They can navigate menus or access inventory items simply by touching the screen with stylus or fingertip. A software-based keyboard might even allow the screen to be used as an input center for games and messaging. The possibilities are limited only by developers' imaginations. The screen will have a tougher film cover for durability, and will come with a stylus.

Microphone: An available microphone port means that in the future, players might need only to tell their games what to do. DS software could identify everything from voice commands to hand-clapping. Players might be able to move their characters simply by telling them which way to go. The voice capabilities also could allow gamers to chat with one another over the Internet while playing.

Wireless: DS users will be able to connect with a local wireless network of up to 16 players. Nintendo's guaranteed range is 30 feet, but will extend far beyond that depending on circumstances. It assures high response rates required for real time game play, and will make use of both IEEE 802.11 and Nintendo's proprietary communication protocol, which provides low battery consumption. Players will be able to chat and play games without any connecting cords, completely untethered. The DS technology also provides for a wireless LAN connection, which could allow a theoretically infinite number of players to connect at a hot spot and compete at a central game hub on the Internet, even if they're thousands of miles apart.

Wireless Game Sharing: If software developers desire, multiple players can compete in wireless games, even if only one person has a game card inserted. Players could also test-play games for themselves as long as they stayed connected.

3-D: With the newly developed graphics engine, DS can reproduce impressive 3-D renderings that can surpass images displayed on the Nintendo 64. Games will run at 60 frames per second, and allow details like fog effects and cell shading.

Sound: The 16-channel sound allows for greatly expanded use of voices and music, and a richer, more immersive game experience. A plug for headphones transmits stereo sound.

Battery & Power Management: The battery is rechargeable and the unit features a low-energy-consumption design. The DS also has Power Management functions of Sleep mode and Standby mode.

Processing: The unit will run on two processors, one ARM9 one ARM7.

New Media: For its compact cards, the unit uses newly developed semiconductor memory, which allows for lower cost, shorter manufacturing time and memory capacity of more than one gigabit of information.

Dual Slots: Nintendo DS makes a vast library of Game Boy Advance games readily available. Developers could find ways to make new connections between GBA games and DS games. The GBA port could be used for new hardware, enormously expanding the functional expandability of the DS.

PictoChat: Keep in constant contact with your friends with PictoChat a wireless chat program thats built into the Nintendo DS. With PictoChat, up to 16 people per chat room can link over a wireless connection and chat and swap drawings all they want. Simply hand-write words or draw pictures on the Nintendo DS touch screen, and then send them to your friends. You can even copy someone elses message, edit it, add to it and send it back. Draw, doodle, share ideas or do anything else you can think of dreaming up new ways to use PictoChat is half the fun. Anyone with a Nintendo DS can play with PictoChat no Game Card is required.