Wow, the power of the DS and Brain Training

Let me set the scenario, imagine your ina room with your relatives and you are possibly the most tech savvy-game-knowledgable person the in the room.. then suddenly, you get asked "Hey, whats your Brain Age?!".. you have the game Brain Training but didn't know your cousisn also got it, you reply "20".. Some of the cousins are shocked. They proceed calling you 'Cheater!' and the like, trying to demean the perfect score.

Suddenly, your bro gets his DS Phat out with Brain Training inside and shows off the game and the console to the cousins, in the first minute or so, pretty much all your cousins were looking at the dual screens and the maths questions, with each member of the family trying out the 20x maths questions and getting stuck on some questions like 5x7 or 5+2! This is the power of Brain Training.

I never liked the game, its a great concept but too 'non-game' for my liking, i have had a few games on it before and managed to get a score in the 20s on my 2nd day of training.. not too shabby... Anyways, yesterday was another thing, i was amazed how Brain Training convinced my whole family (large family as well) that the DS Lite and Brain Training were good, even one of my cousins who has a PSP was thoroughly impressed with the DS Lite's design, brightness and sleek look.. he and her sister was gonna get one, along with the game as well.. but i wonder why? These games are basic, they're basically maths questions or cool little quirky questions that would look out of place on any game, there had to be other reasons.. i analysed further.

I checked their reactions, and alot of them were from the touch-screen usage, people were writing scribbles that hardly looked like numbers and still got the right number. Hand-writing recognition, a genius of an idea, not new but well implemented. But even then, some hand-writing didn't go well and others had to spend 5-10seconds re-writing. Which isn't a bad thing.. it allowed hilarity to the whole thing.
One other thing, multiplayer, my cousin didn't know Brain Training had multiplayer, i demonstrated to them with the simple 30xmaths competition, this was a blast, family member vs family member, old vs young.. everything was done to perfection.. This was done well, and on one cart as well, lots of hilarity ensured with the wrong answers and the audience calling out the right answers, some young members even shouted the answers that old members couldn't get right.
And finally, the simplicity, sounds ovbious right, the game is no different from the usual exam/comprehension games u usually get at school, and this is noexception. No need for a complicated 10-button command system just to drive a car and shoot some people, this is pure simplicity. Pick up the pen, write down the answers.. ANYONE can do it.. no need for an unnecessary 5-minute detail on how to play the game, all i did was tell them to write down the answers and they got it. Simple pick up and play, no hassle fun. The way some games should be.
With all this happening just last night, im very impressed about the whole thing, very rarely have i seen anything like this happen to a group of people, especially with my family members and on nintendo consoles. Oh, and a shout out to me for beating all my cousins at multiplayer.. better luck next time :)