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Another Week in Europe
Didja hear? Doctor Who is back from the future to save the DS in Europe! Hurray!Haha. Not really. In fact, even though Top Trumps: Doctor Who is the only new Nintendo DS game to appear in a European chart this week, it still only managed a risible 33rd spot in the UK. Still, that should keep you David Tennant fans happy, and we even included a shot of Dave to aid your celebrations. Aren't we nice?Aside from that, it's the usual tiresome faces, which means lots of Professor Kawashima and ... actually not so much of Mario and Sonic. Yep, there's no doubt about it: the pair's Olympics game is slowly dropping off the pace, appearing in only two top tens this week.As usual, hit the break to peruse the charts, though please accept our profuse apologies for the lack of an Irish top ten.
Brain Training celebrates 100th week in UK charts
Every Saturday, we document sales charts from the UK and other European countries, and every week, there's one game that appears in the UK top ten without fail: Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training. The sheer longevity of Brain Training's stay in the charts is genuinely exceptional, with this week marking the game's 100th consecutive week in the British charts.Since its June 2006 release, us Brits have seen the likes of Chris Tarrant (in happier times), Nicole Kidman and Patrick Stewart shilling Nintendo's mind-honing software, but we're curious: has it worked? Well, decide for yourselves.
Germany: Give Mom some smarts this Mother's Day
Flower service Fleurop in Germany is suggesting something other than the usual bouquet and pleasant card for your mom this Mother's Day. It would seem they're teaming up with Nintendo to suggest your mom get some good old Brain Training in. And buy some flowers, of course.For 199 Euros, customers can get a nice floral arrangement with a DS Lite and Brain Training. Sadly, we have no idea what DS Lite model consumers will be getting in this bundle.
DS 'turned kids into monsters'
Everybody's favorite scaremongering rag the Daily Mail is at it again. Regular Mail scribe and middle England mom Rosie Millard has written about how a Nintendo DS "turned my delightful, curious and funny children into argumentative demons full of aggression." In the 1,000-word article, Millard laments that her blissful domestic existence was disrupted by her offspring squabbling over the console, and knows exactly where the blame lies: the "hideous" DS.So far, so predictable, but whereas we'd usually be irked by something like this, we actually found most of it amusing. For example, Millard unwittingly admits to purchasing pirated games ("The pale blue, £150 Nintendo finally arrived last November, fresh from Hong Kong, crammed with a 'bundle' of 20 games including Brain Trainer, Fifa 08, and Nintendogs"), while some of the language used is so ridiculously over the top and inflated that we couldn't help but smirk -- apparently, the DS encouraged a "mood [...] of anger, confrontation, pain and frustration." Eyes. Rolling. Our advice, Rosie? Get a Wii -- they're lots of fun, and more suited to social gaming than the DS. As far-fetched as it seems, maybe you'll even crack a smile and have a go.[Thanks, Matt!]
Vitamin supplements for better brain training
From the We-Thought-This-Was-An-April-Fools'-Joke files: vitamin supplements for gamers, specifically designed to steal away your money increase your ability to get your game on. The supplements, available in two varieties, are just plain ol' vitamins repackaged (and with a few extra dollars added to the price tag). The blueberry tablets (which they recommend you lick, chew, and/or enjoy) are designed to pump up your endurance, while the DHA supplements -- which we do not recommend you chew, because fish oil is gross -- are designed to boost your brain power. Chasing that elusive 20? Take two with water and slap Dr. Kawashima around. Clearly, if you take both, world domination is in your future ... or, at least, you may kick a little ass at Game Night.Game Supple goes on sale next week in Japan for ¥880, or just under nine dollars U.S., for 30 pills.
Brain fitness software market is very fit
Say what you will about Nintendo, they know how to create new market segments. Case in point, the SmartBrains "State of the Brain Fitness Software Market 2008 report" which cites the Nintendo's Brain Age games as a key driver in growing the brain fitness software market to a $225 million industry, up 125% since 2005.Though Brain Age games dominate the $80 million consumer segment of the market, the game has also been a key inspiration to the 20 companies that create similar brain training tools for everything from sports teams to the military. The various brain training products have been used in over 400 elder care facilities and five successful randomized clinical trials. One product even gained FDA approval for use in stroke rehabilitation. We just hope those stroke patients don't have an accent.[Via BoingBoing]
Cosplay in Minutes a Day!
Here's a cheap, easy costume you can whip up for your next Halloween/convention/boxart-head meetup -- dress up as Dr. Kawashima's disembodied head! Here's all you need: some white posterboard a pair of scissors a sharpie marker a pair of glasses an aging Asian man Flickr user ClockworkGrue spotted this character last weekend at WonderCon 2008. Girls must have swooned over it, as there are lipstick kiss marks all around the Brain Age mascot. Why else do you think he goes around calling himself LL Cool K (Ladies Love Cool Kawashima)? Step past the break for more video game related costumers spotted at Wondercon 2008.
Eidos goes on a Brain Voyage
The brain training bandwagon has gotten increasingly crowded over the last year, with everyone and their brother seemingly thinking it's their duty to churn out interactive tools to help the cerebrally infirm. The latest company to climb on board is Eidos with Brain Voyage, a new "stylish and challenging" noodle puzzler coming to the Nintendo DS later this year.For board game enthusiasts, the game features "ingenious" puzzles designed by noted German game designer Dr. Reiner Knizia, known for such board games as Amun-Re, Modern Art, and Lord of the Rings. As for what sorts of puzzles we can expect, Eidos notes that the game will feature a sort of globe trotting mechanic, as players ponder 80 different geographically-relevant puzzles "ranging from easy to elaborately ambitious." Details remain cloudy on how exactly these puzzles will work, though that could simply be a side effect of our mental faculties being on increasingly shaky ground.
A 'new' bundle for the UK
Nintendo is releasing a brand new DS Lite bundle containing ... the white DS Lite and the first Brain Training game. It couldn't be worse timing, with the BBC in the midst of attempting to manufacture controversy over the two-year-old game, because now it's going to be a new product and thus even more made-up-newsworthy. But for people who aren't convinced the game is discriminatory, and would like to give the DS a try, this £119.99 bundle is an option --a n option packed in a very clinical-looking box. If the DS supply continues to be as constrained as it is, it may be the only option!The bundle will be out on the 15th, ready to help you learn and keep your brain young and maybe play a game or something if you're into video games.
News recycling: Brain Age doesn't like your accent
Bringing an old story back to the forefront with a new angle, BBC show Watchdog reports that Michelle Livesey of Manchester can't get Brain Training (Brain Age in the States) to recognize her saying "yellow" -- she's apparently not saying it "posh" enough. Although Watchdog added a new dimension with Brain Training's inability to recognize yellow, the original problem color blue is also in the mix. The issue is all in the accents.According to Nintendo, on page 47 of the Brain Training manual it gives hints on how to use the voice recognition properly. Suggestion number four is: "Pronounce each word as clearly as possible, and try to avoid using strong dialects or accents." Just check out Nicole Kidman saying scissors in a Nintendo ad to see how things could go wrong with accents. Nintendo claims it has been continually monitoring the voice recognition efficiency in its software since the game launched in June '06. We believe them, just as long as we don't have to say the color blue, or yellow if we're from Manchester.
BBC's Watchdog keeping an eye on 2006
The BBC's Watchdog consumer report program has discovered a shocking issue with Brain Training: apparently there are some problems with the voice recognition! The game doesn't always understand you when you say "blue" or "yellow!" Have you guys heard about this?What you may not have heard about is that this is now being interpreted as discrimination against people with certain regional dialects. "I'm going, 'yeller' and everyone's saying to me you need to be a bit posher. You need to say, 'yellow' and as soon as I did, it picked it up," reported Michelle Livesey. Host Nicky Campbell then suggested that the game was discriminatory against people with Northern and Scottish accents. Nintendo responded to the report with a statement explaining that they recognize the issue, and that voice recognition in the Stroop test is only a small, optional part of the game.Yet again we find ourselves taken aback by the mainstream media's treatment of gaming. Had Livesey done even the most casual of Googling, she would have learned that the Brain Training voice issue is the "Take my wife, please" of DS game jokes (meaning it's ancient). It's not enough that they presented a well-known problem with a two-year-old game as news, but they seem to have attempted to ignite some sort of controversy over it, without actually doing any research or knowing what they were talking about. People across the United States have the same problem, but to our knowledge nobody accused Nintendo of discriminating against most Americans. We're just going to choose to believe, without having heard the program, that Campbell's comment was facetious in nature. For our sanity.[Via CVG]
Brain Training creator refuses millions in royalties
The Brain Training series of DS games has been incredibly profitable all across the globe, with 17 million titles sold worldwide. But Dr. Kawashima -- the floating head mascot and brilliant mind behind the series -- doesn't care about the money. In fact, he has refused to take any royalties from the games at all, proudly boasting that "not a single yen has gone in my pocket."The series' DS royalties alone are over 2.4 billion yen -- about 22 million dollars USD -- half of which Kawashima is entitled to (the other half going to Tohoku University, his employer). Rather than taking the money, Kawashima is content to support his family of four with his own wages, which are around $100,000 USD.A self-declared workaholic, Dr. Kawashima has dedicated his life to his research into the aging of human brain, which was the genesis of the Brain Training games. We're happy you like your job so much, but don't you think your wife and four sons could benefit from a bit of that brain money?
Brain Training rocked the UK in '07
A list of the top fifty best-selling games in the UK last year has surfaced, and the DS snagged six of the spots, though you may be somewhat surprised by what made it. Of course, considering that there are a lot more regular folks than there are "hardcore gamers" (and even the hardest of the hard like a little break now and again), you may not be that surprised after all.The original brain game, Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training, took the number two spot as the second best-selling title overall, and the sequel, More Brain Training, slid in at number five. Considering that Big Brain Academy turned up at number 37 (along with its console cousin at number 24), there must be a lot of healthy and exercised brains trundling around Dear Old Blighty these days. The other games that turned up were New Super Mario Bros., at number 13, Cooking Mama just above it in twelfth place, and way down near the bottom, Pokémon Diamond turned up at number 44. Perhaps our friends in the UK have already caught them all.
Sony president compliments Nintendo
We're normally used to insults, jabs, and cat fights when it comes to Sony and Nintendo talking about each other, so it's always refreshing to hear compliments instead. David Reeves, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, recently had some nice things to say about the company's competitor. When talking about how the industry has grown in the past year, he gives Nintendo due credit.Reeves states that, thanks to many Nintendo games (like Brain Age, for example), the video games market has expanded to include more female gamers and families. which in turn has been good for the industry. It's certainly hard to argue that Nintendo has brought in many new gamers, but it's still nice for SCEE to give Nintendo props. [Via GoNintendo]
DS sells twenty million in Europe
One of the biggest challenges of being a Nintendo blogger is finding new ways of telling your readers that the DS is popular in various regions of the world. We could take the easy route here and resort to writing about hot cakes and/or printing money, but no, we're just going to give it to you straight: in Europe, the DS is really, really popular. We're not quite talking Japan levels of popularity here -- that would be insane. But it's doing jolly well, regardless. According to a swaggering Nintendo of Europe, the little handheld that could has sold through more than 20 million units in the region, as of the beginning of January. And that's not all, folks: the games are also shifting in healthy numbers. Throughout the continent, Nintendogs is at the front, pulling furiously on its leash with 8 million sales. Everybody's favorite polygonal professor takes second, having sold 5 million copies of the bonce-honing Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain?, while New Super Mario Bros. grabs bronze with 3 million sales. Get that conga line formed, people. You know the drill by now. [Via press release]
FIFA, Brain Training best selling UK games in 2007
EA Sports football (or "soccer" for the US audience) title FIFA 08 was the best-selling video game in the United Kingdom last year according to Chart-Track (via GamesIndustry.biz). The game reportedly sold 25% percent more than its closest rival, Dr Kawashima's Brain Training. Perhaps surprisingly, Microsoft's flagship Halo 3 came in sixth place with only half of FIFA 08's sales. Both FIFA 08 and Halo 3 were released in late September within days of each other. It should be noted that FIFA 08 was a multiplatform title available on six different consoles and the PC. Top ten list after the break.
Scientists scold celebrities for promoting Brain Age
Charitable organization Sense About Science has published its report on celebrities endorsing "scientific mumbo jumbo" that is of debatable merit. While diet pills and skin care lotions are obvious targets, the report (PDF file) also criticized Nicole Kidman and Patrick Stewart, among others, for endorsing Brain Age 2 (also known as More Brain Training in Europe).Kidman, who also did a commercial for the game, was quoted as saying, "I've quickly found that training my brain is a great way to keep my mind feeling young." Not so, according to Dr. Jason Braithwaite, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Birmingham. Said Braithwaite, "While practice at any task should lead to some form of improvement for that specific task, it is not clear that this improvement reflects anything other than a basic learned process for that specific task."The Brain Training games have been developed by Ryuta Kawashima, a neuroscientist and professor at Tohoku University in Japan. So which neuroscientist should we trust? That is, of course, debatable, but we'd wager that pushing yourself to do quick math calculations is a fairly healthy recreation. Not seen: a floating, polygonal head of Dr. Braithwaite.[Update: video fixed]
Dr. Kawashima goes mobile with Namco Bandai brain game
Floating head doctor Ryuta Kawashima has once again been called upon to lend his expertise and disembodied features to a brain training game, this time for mobile phones. CVG reports that Namco Bandai's Brain Coach with Dr. Kawashima will use a "scientifically proven series of fun brain training challenges" to exercise and activate several parts of your brain, most likely the ones that shut down whn u rite a txt msg to ur palz. Brain Coach has only been announced for Japan so far, but given the popular trend kicked off by Nintendo's Brain Training and its intelligent ilk (almost all of it featuring Kawashima), it's unlikely to stay there for very long. Kawashima's constant presence in the genre practically makes him the mental Madden.
Dr. Kawashima to ... cell phones?
Millions of DS users have found themselves charmed by Dr. Kawashima. Afterall, he's not bad looking for bodiless head, and he's a doctor. Mom would be so pleased!It seems, though, that the popular handheld is not enough to keep the good doctor satisfied, since later this month he'll be debuting on European cell phones (or mobiles, as they call them in those parts). The Brain Age ripoff game, called Brain Coach with Dr. Kawashima, will be licensed by Namco Bandai (not Nintendo), and will use daily exercises to track your level of brain aptitude. That sounds familiar ...And to think, we actually believed his sweet, encouraging words as we struggled with our math equations! When all this time he was just looking for younger, slimmer handhelds to play with. We thought you were different, Dr. Kawashima, but you just had to go and break our hearts.
Blondes battle brunettes in Brain Training
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/nintendo/Busty_blondes_battle_brunettes_in_Brain_Training'; Determined to settle the blondes versus brunettes debate once and for all, UK tabloid The Sun gathered ten of its Page 3 girls -- topless models featured on the daily newspaper's third page -- and had the golden-topped ladies compete against their dark-haired opposites in a series of More Brain Training puzzles. As you can expect from a classy publication like The Sun, the resulting article is filled with comically descriptive bits of text like, "Both sides were chest desperate to come out on top." In its praise for the blonde with the lowest and best individual Brain Age, the paper reported, "Sam proved it's not just her 30Fs that has her out in front and was crowned the overall winner."As a group, though, the brunettes took the team prize with an overall better Brain Age. Brunette Peta remarked, "Even before the brain training, I knew the brunettes would win. It doesn't take a genius to work that out." You can ogle more photos of Peta and the other Page 3 girls testing their wits past the post break. Sadly, redheads, a crowd favorite at the Fanboy offices, were nowhere to be seen.
