Flash Focus: Sight Training in Minutes a Day DS review

Flash Focus for Nintendo DSNintendo has released “Flash Focus: Vision Training in Minutes a Day“ also known as “Sight Training: Enjoy Excercising and Relaxing Your Eyes“ worldwide. Since it’s been developed in co-operation with Visual Training expert Dr. Hisao Ishigaki, it brings a twist to the educational puzzle Brain Age game of the Touch! Generations series on the Nintendo DS.

After training your brains with Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day, you can now sharpen your Focus Power with Flash Focus: Vision Training in Minutes a Day. Fast, fun activities and quick-play sports challenges give eyes the challenging workout they need. Or alternatively unwind with some simple eyes relaxation techniques.

System: DS
Genre: Puzzle educational
Release dates: May 31st 2007 (JPN), October 15th 2007 (USA), November 23rd 2007 (EURO)
Players: 1
Developer: Bandai Namco
Publisher: Nintendo
Origin: Japan

Flash Focus Sight Training DS screenshot
How to Play: The first time you play, you have to complete a short series of activities to determine your Eye Age. Users train every day to lower their Eye Age and challenge their abilities in the five major categories of Focus Power: Hand-Eye Coordination, Peripheral Vision, Dynamic Visual Acuity, Momentary Vision and Eye Movement. Afterwards you can track your results with a calendar and easy-to-understand charts.

You can get good results from just 15 minutes a day. The challenge or goal is to improve the Eye Age to 20 and boost Focus Power through daily training. These quick, fun activities are based on vision-training programs used by top athletes. These are sports-based training activities like taking a swing at a speeding pitch, outmaneuvering incoming linebackers, and striking the soccer ball into the goal.

Like the Brain Age franchise, Flash Focus: Vision Training in Minutes a Day features a calendar that tracks the days users have completed their training by giving stamps. For playing each day, more activities and sports-based training activities are unlocked. Each time users complete an activity, their results are added to graphs and charts so that they can visually follow their progress.

You get up to four save files on one game card, and you can send a demo to someone else’s DS. Users have the option of completing the recommended daily training or choosing which specific activities they want to do, chosen from a list of the activities and sports-based training activities they have unlocked (for the list, see below). So if users are in the mood to swing at some pitches, they always have the option to play just the activity they want.

Watch this video to find out why you need Flash Focus ASAP!

Flash Focus features a number of activities that test all aspects of Focus Power, including some fun, sports-based activities:

Flash Focus Sight Training sport minigame DS screenshot * Symbol Order: Three symbols flash on the screen in any of the 12 boxes. One symbol appears at a time for only a split second. The challenge is to remember each symbol and then enter all three symbols in the order in which they appeared.

* Box Tap: Furiously tap a series of moving red boxes before they disappear. The more users successfully tap, the higher the score.

* Number Flash: In this activity, numbers flash very briefly on the top screen. Users must then choose the correct number. As the activity gets harder, the number sequence gets longer.

* Box Track: A circle is placed in one of three boxes. The challenge is to follow the box with the circle in it as the three shuffle rapidly on the screen. Users must then tap the box with the circle in it.

* Circle Spot: In this activity, symbols appear for a split second in 12 boxes arranged on the touch screen. Users must tap the only circle among the symbols.

* Letter Count: Users quickly memorize the target letter, then count how many times it appears as a fast-moving series of letters moves across the screen.

* Fast Match: Users quickly look at the two symbols as they flash on the screen, then decide if they matched by tapping on the touch screen.

* Baseball: Tap the ball on the touch screen as the pitch crosses the plate to score a hit. With each hit, the box gets bigger, making it more challenging to hit the speeding pitch.

* Boxing: Pummel the punch mitt by tapping the center of the target before the sparring partner lowers it. Earn extra points for punching a clean hit in the center of the mitt with perfect accuracy.

* Table Tennis: Users slide the stylus across the screen to volley the ball back to their opponent. Survive 40 volleys to earn a perfect score.

Watch with your eyes to see some of the exercises.

In conclusion I’d like to point out the game’s weakness is that there are only a few exercises you can do once a day and that’s it. The exercises are fun, but they feel like simple mini-games, in other words the challenge isn’t there as much as with the other Brain Age games. Then again, at a price of $20, it might be worth checking out if the other brain training games are still part of your daily/weekly routine. So how much fun is Flash Focus AKA Sight Training on a scale from 1 to 10?

FUN FACTOR – 7.0
The eye training exercises feel like they could’ve been part of any of the Touch! Generations brain training games. Because there are no extras, only a few mini-games and most of them are quite easy, as a result this collection of mini-games won’t even last you half as a long as the other games in the series. The concept of testing your eyes is pretty fun, though.

Graphics – 7.0
The in-game graphics are simple like a text book, but that’s logical for the mini-games at hand. The menus are friendly for users of all ages. The different look of the sports games make them the most fun to do.

Audio – 7.0
The voice in the relaxation exercises is fitting… and relaxing. Cheerful music. Minimal sound effects, but that’s in line with the budget title.

Ingenuity – 7.0
For the tests to work best you need to always keep the DS screens one feet or 30cm from your face. You input answers to the tests with the stylus, simple control.

Replay Value – 4.0
You can get that perfect 20 Eye Age score and unlocked everything after days, by adjusting the date on the DS. Although the game normally forces you to only play once a day, so that should keep you going for a few weeks. You will get some more use out of the game by passing it around to family and friends, but there’s very little replay for yourself once you can complete the mini-games fast/precise enough.