Yesterday we saw brain training for nonexistent puppies, and today it's for real toddlers. Companies are really struggling to find unexplored niches now! Next week: brain training for inanimate objects!505 Games' preschool-age brain training game I Did It Mum! is, implausibly, coming to the U.S. It comes in separate "boy" and "girl" versions, and allows a parent to record encouraging messages, presumably to ensure that the child bonds to his or her DS. It also gives kids a happy message on their birthdays.
I Did It Mum comes from Starfish, who are gaining prominence for their Wii games Kiki Kai World and Monkey King: The Legend Begins. This is about as far as one could get from those two shooters, however.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-10-2007 @ 9:20PM
Newzilla147 said...
Being a young parent, I think this is a good idea. Since I buy products at TRU for my son at enormous cost, (those Leapster and Vtech toys put a huge dent in my pocket) it would be nice to have one system that my child and I can both play. I did some research and it's UFO Interactive that is publishing. I don't know about Starfish but this title received a few awards if you look on their site.
Anything that helps my wallet and my child is a plus to me.
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10-10-2007 @ 10:44PM
Abby said...
I find it a bit disturbing, really. I already spend too much time out of my life glued to a screen; I don't need to teach my kids to do the same so early on. I'm not even going to begin to complain about the concept of recording voice messages to your kids instead of, you know, interacting with them. But what bothers me the most is the separate gendered versions- do toddler's brains really work so differently, several years between puberty, that we need separate brain training systems for them?
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10-12-2007 @ 6:55PM
Newzilla147 said...
I don't know about Abby, but I've been a game enthusiast all my life. Since having a child, that hobby has died down tremendously but that doesn't mean that I do not play. With that said, I think children can benefit from playing games as long as there is parental supervision. My parents didn't know a thing about games and it certainly isn't the same kind of problem it is now. By making use of a widely distributed and known platform to develop an edutainment title is a brilliant idea in my opinion. Looking at some of the other sites, major players, such as Konami, are getting into the same genre. It's more surprising to me that this hasn't happened sooner. I remember when I was a kid, I learned so much more from playing Oregon Trail without it having felt like a "lesson". In regards to gender, I think its more for aesthetics then anything else. To add to that, children are very technologically savvy at a young age and can grasp the differences quickly. My son is only 6 years old and he can kick some butt playing Warcraft and Super Smash Bros.
I think this is definitely going to be a positive trend in the gaming industry where videogames can actually be beneficial. Look at the surprising success from Brain Age and all its clones and the upcoming Wii Fit. This is an exciting time as the industry as we know it is changing.
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