Brain Age (Nintendo DS lite)

To be completely honest, most of the video games I review are an entertaining waste of time at best, mind-rotting at worst.

Their educational value usually goes as far as teaching you how to mow down a dozen gangsters with a single clip of ammunition (Grand Theft Auto) or how to create the worst intersection car crash possible (Burnout Revenge).

For that reason, games such as Brain Age, which is available on the Nintendo DS handheld device, deserve special mention.

On first look I wasn't too impressed, but the game becomes addictive in the way Sudoku is. Brain Age goes back to the heart of what video games and Nintendo itself are all about: the simplest games are often the best ones.

Brain Age is a series of mini-games designed to sharpen your mind. It begins with a test in the form of three exercises. One threw random multiplication equations at me. Another asked me to count the syllables in a series of words. In another, a collection of numbers flashed up on the screen and I had to remember where they were and re-plot them on a blank screen.

I didn't do too well in any of the exercises. The Nintendo guy who was demonstrating the game stood respectfully silent but I'm sure he thought I was an idiot. So did the computer. Based on the initial tests, I had a brain age of 67.

I've since learned that the idea of Brain Age is to edge your way in increments towards a brain age of 20 and intellectual respectability - and it works. My brain age is now 35.

Brain Age was developed with the help of Japanese neuroscientist Dr Ryuta Kawashima, who believes that completing some short daily exercises will help keep your thinking skills sharp.

Initially I approached Brain Age each morning with the same enthusiasm I enter my local gym with - not much. But just as I'm always out to beat my best time for 2000m on the rowing machine, I'm now trying to outdo my old Brain Age score.

The game is simply put together, with large, clear, animated icons and a caricature of a bespectacled Kawashima guiding you through the exercises.

But Brain Age is another game where good use is made of the sophisticated technology in the compact Nintendo DS device. There are handwriting exercises that require you to write on the DS' screen and you'll also be required to read extracts from literary greats such as Joseph Conrad and Charlotte Bronte into the DS' speaker.

You can save the profiles of four people on the DS so you can compare the brain ages of your family.

There are Sudoku puzzles galore but I found them the least appealing component of the game.

You'll play Brain Age for only 10 minutes a day and it just might help you stop the rot.

Price: $60 (Nintendo DS Lite $270).