Educational games a smart industry niche

EDUTAINMENT. That sucks all the fun out of playing games, doesn't it? Nintendo did a whole array of games based on this new niche in hopes that it would encourage learning.

Mario Is Missing!, Mario's Time Machine and Mario's Early Years: Fun with Letters are some of the games released throughout the 90s which didn't have much replayability.

These were prime examples of not only cashing in on Mario's fame, but also killing the idea of entertaining educational fun because most of them didn't benefit the players that much.

But it's not the red-coveralled plumber's fault. During the past years, gamers have witnessed the likes of Captain Novolin who taught players how to take insulin shots and maintain a good diet. However, bland graphics and poorly executed gameplay killed gamers faster than taking a bite of one sugar laced doughnut from Fun Doughnut.

That was during the 16-bit era. Now, with the Nintendo DS in particular, the rise of casual gamers among the diminishing number of hardcore gamers is seeing a whole new era of innovation, especially in the edutainment scene. Suffice to say, educational games have never been this much fun.

Take the example of Dr Kawashima's Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain? Who would have thought that simply typing, remembering and inputting arithmetic answers could mean being scorned as a senile man at the brain age of 85 or lauded for being 20, thus on top of your game. It's this simplicity that makes the game so replayable. It charts your progress and suggests other ways to exercise your brain.

Ever since then, several game companies have jumped into the edutainment arena, with programs such as Big Brain Academy, Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day, Brain Boost: Beta Wave and so many more.

Now, don't think for a minute that contemporary educational games are solely based on how to grow your brain exponentially to the point that you need a crutch attached to your head.

They are now extended towards improving as well as learning new languages. Ubisoft's Coach series such as My French Coach, My Spanish Coach and My Vocabulary Coach have been gathering enough vibes to expand your mind into subjects you would normally have to pay hundreds of dollars just to utter Je veux aller au musee (I want to go to the museum).

All these mind challenges available in the market right now is enough to blow up your brain into genius proportions while still maintaining that level of cool nerd awesomeness.

The recently released Professor Layton and the Curious Village, for example, where gameplay is based on puzzles that warp the brain muscles with an enjoyable adventure game, has been relishing success in Japan and has also been gaining momentum in the US.

With this impetus, it's not impossible that more of these brain flexing simulator games will be appearing in the coming months.

With that said, no one can ever complain that gamers are good for nothing lazy bums, because, you know, we're smarter than that. The Brunei Tines