Brain Age 2 (week 2)

And here are the rest of the trainings from Brain Age 2 on Nintendo DS. I really needed this mental break these past two weeks, so even though it probably wasn't very interesting to see on Instagram, I'm glad I did this.

Word Blend (Monday 11/13)
My least favorite of all of them

Calendar Count (Tuesday 11/14)

Math Recall (Wednesday 11/15)

Clock Spin (Thursday 11/16)

Block Count (Friday 11/17)

Brain Age 2 (week one)

So to alleviate some of the time and energy cost I've been putting into this lately, as I need a little bit of a break, I'm going to do two themed weeks. There are ten trainings in Brain Age 2 for DS, so I'm going to do one each weekday for the next two weeks (with something different over the weekend in between to mix things up). The whole first week is going into this post, then I'll do one post for the whole second week.

Sign Finder (Monday 11/6)

Piano Player (Tuesday 11/7)

Word Scramble (Wednesday 11/8)

Memory Sprint (Thursday 11/9)

Change Maker (Friday 11/10)

Virus Buster

This is a game hidden inside of Brain Age 2 for the Nintendo DS that would be a total knockoff of Dr. Mario if it wasn't made by the same company.

You can only play Virus Buster once you've done your Daily Training for the day (but you only have to do one exercise to unlock it for the day). You're told before it starts that it isn't training, but it's for relaxation.

The music is the same as one of the modes in Dr. Mario for NES, but like a soothing, lullaby-style remix of it. It's nice. And a little weird.

You can only rotate the pills in one direction, by tapping on them, but - at least in Easy mode - they fall really slowly so it's not really an issue.

Also, if you have "remainder" pill pieces after you get four in a row that disappear, they also fall slowly and you can actually grab those and move them around if you want to, which I think is pretty cool.

I am pleased to announce that I'm just as good at this game as I am at regular Dr. Mario.

Scribblenauts (DS)

I always thought this was a clever idea for a game, but I never play it for long. I don't know why... it just doesn't grab me.

For the unfamiliar: you work your way through stages, solving problems by writing the names of objects that will help in the scene. For example, in the top right photo, I was told to help the birthday boy break the pinata, so I wrote "bat" and handed him the baseball bat and he swung at the pinata... problem solved! Some aren't so easy.

Side note: I was amazed to turn on the DS and see that its battery was fully charged... I haven't used it in ages. Props to Nintendo for that one!