Brain Age: Concentration Training

It does its job well, but it lacks Brain Training's focus and accessibility, making it a difficult recommendation compared to the past iterations.

The elaboration of exercises intended to improve brain capacities is not an easy task, but it gets even more difficult to make these fun as well with a focus on the (hard)working memory, because of the multiple distractions from our hyperconnected world. Thanks to a playful tone, an adaptive challenge and a wide selection of cleverly designed activities, Brain Age : Concentration Training successfully keeps the experience interesting, but also gratifying. Despite some persistent handwriting recognition issues and the rather large amount of recycled games, this devilish episode shall amuse our minds, an indubitable benefit, intellectual empowerment debates notwithstanding.

Dr. Kawashima returns to Europe after a long trip abroad, and it's been worth waiting as this new entry in the series is utterly good in its purpose, but is really conservative. 30 minigames and a new focus, perfect for this 3DS final life cicle.

For the most part, though, the game excels in taking mundane tasks and making these activities fun. At the same time, having to unlock everything (along with the required Devilish Calculations demo) is an awkward way to introduce players to the experience. Nintendo would be wise to remember this before releasing a sequel.

Even compared to the original Brain Age, Concentration Training is much more demanding, and players shouldn't expect to breeze through exercises and watch their training grade skyrocket.

The brain training assignments are fun to do, but the devilish missions are way too boring and repetitive to really enjoy for the long run.

It’s a fun diversion, but I think that four years on it’s a case of too little, too late and Brain Training’s lost much of its charm. If you feel that information addiction has gotten the better of you or that you need to improve your focus, Devilish Brain training may be worthwhile – but it’s both tedious and sparse.

Dr Kawashima's Devilish Brain Training does everything it sets out to do, but it doesn't try to be particularly ambitious. If you've played previous Brain Training games before, you know exactly what you're getting into, but it's not an experience for everybody.