“Smartphones, tablets, laptops… A world of information at your fingertips! How convenient! Or so you might think,” a voice-over intones as “Brain Age: Concentration Training” begins. Then the mascot of the “Brain Age” series, Ryuta Kawashima, appears on the screen, revealing himself as the source of the improbably Western-sounding voice the player is hearing. “Is there a downside?” he asks. “I think so! These modern devices, always connected… They may be eroding our ability to concentrate!”
It’s rich for Nintendo, maker of the “Brain Age” series — and the hand-held 3DS that “Brain Age: Concentration Training” is played on — to come out against “these modern devices,” but it’s oddly appropriate, too. Nintendo is having its lunch eaten by Apple, whose App Store has a plethora of good games for just a buck or few each. Against countless cheap brain-training apps, in addition to websites like Luminosity that offer similar brainteasers for free, Nintendo is, ironically, following the Apple model: put the best product out there, and charge way more.
