Friday 18 January, 2008

Session 1

SUMMARY

In Brain Age 2 the player must play several of the mini games including word scramble, change maker, and number memory in order to complete daily training in
logic, memory, and simple mathematics. The object of the game is to reach a brain age of 20 and to create new high scores.

GAMEPLAY

I am very familiar with Brain Age and was excited to play it again after I had forgotten about the game for so long. I felt extremely focused and had a lot of fun while playing. The one element that the game lacked though was a story as well as characters.

Brain Age presents to the player only one character, a middle-aged oriental doctor, who also narrates and guides the player throughout the game. He provides the player with interesting facts on how to improve your memory. As the player continues to complete daily training, new games are unlocked by Dr. Kawashima.

Brain Age is a single player game; however, as I was playing a bystander could not resist shouting answers and trying to participate in the game. I became extremely addicted to this game--playing it on the bus, as I consumed my meals--I had to play it everyday because it made me feel as if I was really exercising my brain while playing a video game.

Session 2

GAMEPLAY
In my second session playing Brain Age, I felt overwhelmingly excited and invigorated to play. I hoped to reach a lower brain age than my current one at 54. However the game still lacked a story and any actual characters. Dr. Kawashima remained a dull guide to the game.

Brain Age was still very fun to play despite the fact that I had gotten bored with it in the past. I think it is the kind of game that would appeal more to younger players. Playing the game alone the second time made it seem less exciting whereas with a bystander, the player feels pressed for time and nervous. I ended the session still feeling enthusiastic about the game but a little less excited.

DESIGN

I think that one of the main factors that keep this game interesting is that it times the player on how quickly he/she can solve the math problem or puzzle. One of the ways it draws in the player is that he/she feels compelled to beat old high scores. You can also compete with other players in brain age who have had their profile saved.

The game also rotates from different areas of the brain. For example, the games vary from mathematical problem solving to language and memory tests. Once each minigame is played in one day, however, each minigame category is not renewed and therefore would have to be replayed. Because of this restriction, the player must stop playing and wait until the next day to play the new minigame for each category.

This is a good start. You might want to add some more detail to your gameplay sections: for example, you could talk about a specific mini-game and how it works.

In the future, please split your gamelog sessions into two separate entries on the site (but they are still both due at the same time).

-Gillian Smith (TA)