New Nintendo Software Lets Players Exercise Their Brains

Nintendo’s ability to appeal to younger generations with innovative, imaginative and inspired video games takes a mature twist today, as the company launches its creative vision for consumers of all ages. Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day for Nintendo DS is designed to keep people’s minds active with fun mental workouts that incorporate the user-friendly voice-command and touch-screen capabilities of Nintendo DS. Brain Age also includes more than 100 sudoku puzzles.

“Adults with little or no video gaming experience don’t have to worry about complicated button mashing,” says Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of sales & marketing, whose Brain Age is 30. “Brain Age is just the latest example of Nintendo’s commitment to creating software for a broad range of consumers with varying levels of experience.”

Brain Age is the U.S. version of the popular brain-training software in Japan that already has sold more than 2 million units. The title provides an entertaining and engaging way for Nintendo to reach out to a broad audience, including seniors and baby boomers (who began turning 60 in January).

Brain Age can be a part of an overall regimen for keeping the brain active, says Dr. Elizabeth Zelinski, dean and executive director of Leonard Davis School of Gerontology at the University of Southern California.

“Nintendo’s Brain Age should be just one element of an active lifestyle that includes mental stimulation, exercise and a good diet,” Zelinski says. “Brain Age is a great way for people to keep challenging themselves.”

Brain Age challenges cognitive abilities with exercises like memorizing words, counting and tracking people as they enter and exit a house, and drawing lines to connect letters and numbers in alphabetical and numeric order.

Nintendo continues to push the boundaries of video games. The company broke new ground with noncompetitive game play in Nintendogs, fused music and art with Electroplankton and now introduces brain-training exercises with Brain Age, which appeals to consumers of all ages. Launching April 17, Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day is rated E for Everyone and is expected to be priced as low as $20 at retailers throughout the United States. For more information about the title, visit www.brainage.com.

The worldwide leader and innovator in the creation of interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its popular home and portable video game systems. Each year, hundreds of all-new titles for the best-selling Game Boy Advance
SP, Nintendo DS and Nintendo GameCube systems extend Nintendo’s vast game library and continue the tradition of delivering a rich, diverse mix of quality video games for players of all ages. Since the release of its first home video game system in 1983, Nintendo has sold more than 2 billion video games and more than 360 million hardware units globally, creating enduring industry icons such as Mario and Donkey Kong and launching popular culture franchise phenomena such as Metroid, Zelda and Pokemon.

A wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for Nintendo’s operations in the Western Hemisphere.

For more information about Nintendo, visit the company’s Web site at www.nintendo.com.