(Link to video)
Submission Text Full Submission Page
Brain Age 2, also known as "More Brain Training from Dr. Kawashima" in PAL regions, is a sequel to Brain Age. It is a puzzle game to exercise your brain a little each day. You will play a variety of puzzles to train your brain. Although there has been controversy over the scientific effectiveness of the game in keeping your brain active, the game got very popular.

Game objectives

  • Emulator used: desmume-0.9.6
  • Abuses programming errors
  • Is a demonstration
  • Manipulates luck
  • Uses game restart sequence

About the run

I was going to draw a detailed picture in every math problems. However, my previous Brain Age TAS got a lot of criticisms that it is slow-paced. After all, I gave up the idea of drawing a lot of detailed pictures and decided to make a quick-paced run that aims for youngest age on Brain Age Check and maximum score on Piano Player.
I decided to redo Piano Player as some people didn’t enjoy the part in the previous run. Also I removed other minigames after the brain age check because the feedback on them was quite poor except for the last picture. Therefore the goal of the run is to launch a rocket on Piano Player.

Brain Age Check

It aims to be the youngest brain age. To achieve the objective, the run must be complete within 1050 frames. There are only 11 math problems and the average time for answering is about 95 frames. This is enough to draw some pictures without failing to achieve the objective.

Piano Player

I added some recognizable music. This part is the main feature of the movie.

Special thanks

  • ISM and 890, for their Piano Player run.
  • Jungon, for your kind comments when I received a lot of complaints. That motivated me to redo the run.

Suggested Screenshots

2829, 2928, 3059, 3194, 3367, and Piano Player

DarkKobold: I will claim this, again.

TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #3130: Ryuto's DS Brain Age 2 in 02:59.60
GabCM
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You pianoed even better than before! Of course, it gets my Yes vote, again. And I've encoded this, again. But this time, you can see every note being played in my HD encode. SD Stream SD Download HD Stream
Skilled player (1637)
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Much better, and different, IMO.
Sage advice from a friend of Jim: So put your tinfoil hat back in the closet, open your eyes to the truth, and realize that the government is in fact causing austismal cancer with it's 9/11 fluoride vaccinations of your water supply.
Patryk1023
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WTHWT!? Yeah, nice run Ryuto! YES v0t3!
<Nach> scrimpy is fretty with her sunglasses on I'm here. never visible.
Banned User, Former player
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
I'm actually undecided whether this is better or worse than the cancelled submission... In fact, I think this might be a bit too short, with too few funny pictures. I don't know what to vote...
Former player
Joined: 5/4/2005
Posts: 502
Location: Onett, Eagleland
Voted meh. I just don't see any entertainment.
I think.....therefore I am not Barry Burton
Emulator Coder
Joined: 3/9/2004
Posts: 4588
Location: In his lab studying psychology to find new ways to torture TASers and forumers
I agree with Pasky13, I don't find entertainment in this run either. I'd much rather have the music you're trying to play in a separate wav file, or in a video of a normal piano program. If I knew what I was listening for, maybe it would help... I recognized some famous tune which I don't know the name of, and I think something from Zelda and Metroid, but it's hard to make out with the other tune being played at the same time, and how limited you are with this piano. Perhaps instead of pictures at the beginning, you can write down what to expect later music wise? It would make the run a bit more cohesive.
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
Skilled player (1470)
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Voting meh because it's short enough,but it has less entertainment than Brain Age.
Do the work.
Banned User, Former player
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
This is a tough decision, but I'm going to vote no. I just liked the cancelled version more, and find this version too short and lacking. Not that the cancelled version couldn't have been even better (with the better piano playing and more complex/funny pictures), but I still think it was more enjoyable. I'd suggest making a third version with more of the good stuff.
Experienced player (758)
Joined: 6/17/2008
Posts: 146
Language: monospace

00:00:00-00:00:38 – The intro. 00:00:39-00:00:57 – Drawing pictures. 00:00:57-00:01:45 – Setting name and birth date. Piano countdown. 00:01:46-00:02:57 – Playing the piano. 00:02:58-00:03:12 – The ending. 18 seconds of drawing pictures. This concept is already demonstrated better by the published run. 71 seconds of playing the piano. 91 seconds of fluff.
This run's fate rests upon the piano performance. Can the potential hope of this section outweigh the despair wrought by the rest of the run? The winds of destiny are blowing through the piano, slamming the keys in an incohesive fashion. And as the final note is delivered, the crowd bursts into tears of pity. The performance's only hope for redemption has been crushed in a flurry of notes. As the funeral bells sing their lonely requiem, the omnipresent Grue dancingly descends upon the performance, tearing it apart in a manner that defies both space and time at superhuman speed and precision. I think this run could greatly benefit from the usage of dirty SRAM to skip the mandatory age check and naming process in order to be able to proceed directly to the various minigames where the potential for separating itself from the published run is the greatest. I call upon you, fellow Grammar Nazis! Let the bashing of my conciousness's pretentious products commence with neither remorse nor regret.
Brandon
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Voting no. You removed my favorite part while barely improving the piano. It was mostly incoherent, skipping from song to song too fast to even realize what you are playing, and more importantly, it was drowned out by the music in the background. Perhaps you could implement a solo over the song that follows the chords, and doesn't spam notes really really fast just because you can. I will not vote yes on a submission that doesn't put the runner section back. That final image was brilliant, and completely made the run for me. Why did you remove it?
All the best, Brandon Evans
GabCM
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Location: QC, Canada
Brandon wrote:
I will not vote yes on a submission that doesn't put the runner section back. That final image was brilliant, and completely made the run for me. Why did you remove it?
I guess that would be because people criticized this part. They found it boring.
Noxxa
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I don't think the piano segment has really improved, in my opinion. I'd also prefer a published run of this game to contain more of the game, and not just one part which is not that interesting anyway. I vote Uncancel-the-old-run-and-cancel-this-one.
http://www.youtube.com/Noxxa <dwangoAC> This is a TAS (...). Not suitable for all audiences. May cause undesirable side-effects. May contain emulator abuse. Emulator may be abusive. This product contains glitches known to the state of California to cause egg defects. <Masterjun> I'm just a guy arranging bits in a sequence which could potentially amuse other people looking at these bits <adelikat> In Oregon Trail, I sacrificed my own family to save time. In Star trek, I killed helpless comrades in escape pods to save time. Here, I kill my allies to save time. I think I need help.
Joined: 5/2/2009
Posts: 656
Mothrayas wrote:
I don't think the piano segment has really improved, in my opinion. I'd also prefer a published run of this game to contain more of the game, and not just one part which is not that interesting anyway. I vote Uncancel-the-old-run-and-cancel-this-one.
this
My first language is not English, so please excuse myself if I write something wrong. I'll do my best do write as cleary as I can, so cope with me here =) (ノಥ益ಥ)ノ
ALAKTORN
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this is getting ridiculous
Editor, Experienced player (894)
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For the record, I enjoyed the piano playing. The first submitted run was more epic in its length and even in its hardships a somewhat deserving sequel to the Brain Age 1 run. This second one is short, but with a better time/entertainment ratio. I'd be fine with either being published...
Jungon
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Be careful or your brain will age too much with this game... +D I'm voting Meh, and I'm too lazy right now to explain why ... but it's like that, it's less entertaining the second time, when we just already saw it before, but mostly because even the piano player song got better, I got less entertainment from this one, somehow >.> Maybe perfection is randomness .. sometimes.
Mothrayas wrote:
I don't think the piano segment has really improved, in my opinion. I'd also prefer a published run of this game to contain more of the game, and not just one part which is not that interesting anyway. I vote Uncancel-the-old-run-and-cancel-this-one.
I kind of agree with this guy, .. the old one was slow paced but had something new.. +D ...... It's like you're saying you'll TAS a Sonic game, but just the two first levels..
*Jungon*/*Johnnyz* smilie weirdo =P ^^ o.o @__@ +D
GabCM
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turska wrote:
I think this run could greatly benefit from the usage of dirty SRAM to skip the mandatory age check and naming process in order to be able to proceed directly to the various minigames where the potential for separating itself from the published run is the greatest.
That would be awesome!
mklip2001
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Hmm, nifty! Of course, with a game like this, people are going to like different things from this. Personally, I liked this one a lot. The piano player didn't sound as random... more like he was just really restless (pun intended). I like that this is more focused than the first submission. It helped me stay amused the whole way through, rather than having to change gears every couple minutes when the game changes. (With the first Brain Age, even though there were a large variety of pictures, it was just one minigame type.) Whether or not this gets published, Ryuto, you've put some great work into this game. I'm sure many people will appreciate the two YouTube videos you've put up. As for this run, I'm voting Yes.
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically. Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.) Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html) Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature! Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.
Joined: 5/13/2009
Posts: 141
Warp wrote:
This is a tough decision, but I'm going to vote no. I just liked the cancelled version more, and find this version too short and lacking. Not that the cancelled version couldn't have been even better (with the better piano playing and more complex/funny pictures), but I still think it was more enjoyable. I'd suggest making a third version with more of the good stuff.
I voted meh, for largely the same reasons.
Reviewer, Active player (277)
Joined: 12/14/2006
Posts: 717
While the melodies are much easier to hear this time around the run suffers from the same problem as the last one. You can still hear Home on the Range playing in the background. Unless you can play the piano in a way in a way that it meshes with the background music, it will always sound like a random cacophony rather than a set of interesting melodies. However, this also severely limits what you can do to make the process entertaining. For that reason, I am voting "no" because of bad game choice. This is not NES Test or Mario Paint, where the melody you make is your own and there's nothing interfering with that.
Editor, Experienced player (608)
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Voting Meh. The old one was more entertaining because it was longer and thus had more entertaining segments, but if more people like this, then publish away.
TASVideosGrue
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om, nom, nom... minty!
Patryk1023
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Why!? Why did you throwed that run to be eaten by TASVideos Grue?
<Nach> scrimpy is fretty with her sunglasses on I'm here. never visible.
GabCM
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Location: QC, Canada
Patryk1023 wrote:
Why!? Why did you throwed that run to be eaten by TASVideos Grue?
I guess that would be because of criticism, once again. He's probably improving the run, again.