More Brain Exercise with Dr Kawashima

We're not sure there can be anyone left in the world now who doesn't own a brain training game already. The things are so widespread they've practically reached epidemic scale, spreading from DS to PSP to mobile phone like electronic herpes.

However, on the off-chance you're yet to jump upon the brain bolstering wagon, Namco is back with another brain training game, once again endorsed by the king of brain exercise, Dr Kawashima.

The size of Kawashima's own brain should be in no doubt - he's probably made several million quid lending his name to these games over the years, after all. (Are you sure? - ed).

More Brain Exercise follows the usual tried-and-tested formula. First you find out your current brain age by completing one of the game's 15 brain-straining exercises (there's also one bonus unlockable one).

Next you get to play a daily exercise. This option only comes up once a day, and your results are plotted on a bar graph as well as ticked off on the in-game calendar. The daily exercise consists of playing three games that, once done, unlock some new ones for the next day.

Forgetting all the brain age and pseudo science stuff (and there's plenty of that: before each game you're shown on a diagram which parts of your brain will be stimulated by playing it), the games are obviously the most important part of the whole thing. And those in More Brain Exercise are undoubtedly fun.

There are maths-based ones, such as Add 3, where you add up the numbers on some randomly appearing balls, add 3, then enter the answer as quickly as possible using your mobile keypad.

Then there are more visual, memory-testing games, such as Umbrellas, which shows you a grid of umbrellas and has you quickly identifying which are spinning clockwise, which anti-clockwise, and which are stationary.

They're pretty standard stuff for a brain training game, but where Namco really gets things right is by building these games specifically around the mobile handset. All of the games are easy to control with the keypad, with most using either grids that correspond to the keypad, or having number answers that can be easily tapped in.

When your results are being determined by how quickly you can work out answers to questions, and how many wrong answers you get, being able to enter them easily is of utmost importance. And in that area this game gets it completely right.

Other things it gets right include a mode where up to four people can compare their results, and letting you play any of the games you've unlocked in a quick game, meaning you can always practice even if you've completed that day's exercise already.

In Quick Play mode, the good doctor pops up to give you an immediate score and also a rating in the form of an animal. The bigger the animal it seems, the more intelligent you are.

We haven't heard much proof of brain training games actually doing what they claim to do and improving the age of your brain (although we have heard evidence to the contrary).

And it seems there's some unfairness in the fact you're being scored on how quickly you can input an answer - surely some people just have slow fingers? That's my excuse for having a 45 year old brain, at least.

But there's no denying there are worse ways to while away half an hour than by playing More Brain Exercise. It's got a lot of competition, but Namco's latest is among the best of its kind.