First Class
HAND-EYE COORDINATION
NINJA REFLEX Score your black belt by palming koi
or catching flies with chopsticks. Goofy
as said outing’s nunchuk- and shuriken-
slinging premise sounds, Olympic gold
medalist Herb Perez and jiujitsu cham-
pion Steve Maxwell both claim it hones
mental focus. Conceniently, resisting
temptations to hurl the homicidal rage-
inducing game out the window also teaches patience,
Grasshopper. Nintendo DS, Wii • ea.com • $29.99 (DS), $39.99 (Wii)
MEMORY
BRAIN CHALLENGE Snopes.com has already de-
bunked that old myth that we only
use 10 percent of our brains, but
here’s your proof (sorry, Uri Geller).
Test your brain function in the areas
of memory, visuals, logic, math, focus, stress and creativity, and track
your brain percentage use with the built-in speed
and accuracy gauge. PC • ubisoft.com • $19.99
GROW
YOUR
LOBE
LANGUAGE
MY WORD COACH Inspired by Univer-
sity of Quebec linguistics
professor Thomas Cobb’s
research, this catchy
mind-bender offers term-recognition challenges,
spelling-based puzzles
and word definition-
fueled head-scratchers to improve
one’s phrase-slinging ability. The program grades your Expression Potential,
reflecting your command over the
English language, and features 16,800
individual words, including several
guaranteed Scrabble score-boosting
zingers. Nintendo DS, Wii • ubisoft.com • $29.99
FLASH FOCUS Shepherded through
its development by
the Aichi Institute of
Technology’s sports
medicine expert
Hisao Ishigaki,
this grab bag of
cornea-friendly activities—swinging at
pitches, tapping disappearing shapes,
playing table tennis—claims to turbo-charge your peepers. If nothing else,
you’ll notice your peripheral vision
improving as you dodge jealous onlookers’ outstretched paws.
Nintendo DS • nintendo.com • $29.99
COGNITION
BRAIN VOYAGE Travel from
Beijing to Rio
solving dozens of puzzles
highlighting
arithmetic,
deductive
reasoning and spatial ability. Constructed by genius
German designer Reiner
Knizia, it’s bound to improve
your math skills: We make no
official IQ-boosting claims, but
multiply thousands of copies
sold at $20 a shot to see how
rich you’ll make him!
Nintendo DS • eidos.com • $19.99
