Nintendo console and game publisher has started this year to target another population segment besides the teenagers who are always keen on video and computer games. The games company thought that older people might be as interested in playing fun games as youngsters. Especially when the game is not only meant for fun, but also for exercising the mental or physical skills of adults. This is where the whole idea of creating games that would both be funny and useful to adults and elders came from.

The first game which aimed to attract older gamers was released by Nintendo about 6 months ago and is called Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day. It uses all kinds of logical games to exercise and enhance adults' cognitive function and mental abilities. The game is based on various reading and mathematic exercises that stimulate the brain and makes it all as easy and fun as simply playing a video game. Instead of taking a math or other textbook and solving the exercises there, the gamer has the opportunity two have fun and improve his memory skills at the same time.


Brain Age hit the shelves earlier this year, in February, and has been welcome by older people around the world. It has already proven to be a huge success in Japan and other countries and there is also plenty of time for it to become one of the most popular games among adults. The game inspired by cutting-edge neuroscience begins with a series of tests that are going to determine the age of the gamer's brain. Namely, depending on the score the user gets at the preliminary tests, his brain will be categorized as "old" - he has lost some of his mental abilities along the way, with years passing by - or still "young" - bright and sharp.

Manufacturers of the game state that if one plays the game only for a few minutes a day and solves the exercises and tests comprised in Brain Age, then the user will regain brain youth again and his cognitive function will be considerably improved.




After the huge success of the Brain Age game, the company has announced recently that a new game following the same pattern and aiming at the same age segment is going to be released at the end of this year. Only that the new Nintendo game, called Wii, is not going to enhance and improve adults and elders' cognitive function but, instead, it will be based on making them exercise more. Therefore, Wii is meant to help overweight people have fun and lose weight at the same time. That's really something new and functional, isn't it? Especially if we look at the numbers that classify obesity as one of the most menacing disorders of the century.

The main tool of the game that is going to make overweight people get slimmer and have fun at the same time is the controller or joystick. Users may use the joystick as a wheel, stick or other tool that will make them move around and exercise their bodies. The new Nintendo Wii-based diet software aims at making people exercise more and move that lazy bodies up and down, to the right and to the left. And the most important part of the game is that the lazy adults are not going to notice the physical effort they do, because it will be just for fun!