Brain Training is a crock. Seriously. No, we love it, but anyone who thinks this is shooting up their IQ is sadly mistaken. Go out sometime. Find a group of real intellectuals. They will be the ones at the far side of the bar, exhaling plumes of meerschaum smoke through their nostrils into the ponderous bellies of extravagant brandy goblets. Interrupt their conversation about Sartre's existentialist manifesto to show them how well you can draw a Koala Bear. They won't laugh at you openly, because they will be intellectuals and therefore fear having their asses kicked; but neither will they invite you to sit down and hand you an ascot. You will be shunned as a barbarian.

But while Brain Training is a scam, I really like the idea of the next game in the series: Common Sense Training for Adults. Because let's face it, this is something that can be improved in almost everyone. Exercises could include the "Do I look fat in this dress?" girlfriend test. The correct answer is, of course, an emphatic "NO!" screamed at the top of your lungs into the DS mike; but that simple common sense primer could single-handedly cure spontaneous eunuchization world wide. Florian Eckhardt

Nintendo's Social Training Game [Next Generation]

Contact information for this author is not available.