Personal Trainer: Math

Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Release Date: Jan. 12, 2009
System: Nintendo DS
ESRB Rating: E
Official Web site

In a nutshell: Also known as "Make Kyle Feel Bad About His Division Skills: The Game!"

0:00 Doing math drills doesn't sound like much fun to me, but Nintendo sent me the game so I figure I owe it to them to at least try it out. I'm a bit afraid to see how much my math skills have atrophied since my school days. Hopefully this isn't calculus-level stuff.

0:01 I hold the DS on its side, book-style. "Welcome to Personal Trainer: Math!" says a blue-haired guy in a blue suit. He has no mouth, yet he somehow says: "My name is Hideo Kageyama. I'm going to be your new math teacher." Hey-o, Hideo.

0:03 The game recommends starting with the Daily Test, and who am I to argue? "Oh, I see that this is your first-ever daily test. It's important that you practice math every day." Hence the "daily" part of "daily test," right?

0:04 The first test is a series of flash cards. I have to count how many items appear on a flash card and write the number on the touch-screen. Really, that's it. This doesn't feel like "math" to me. Feels more like "counting." Counting is not math! My time of 31 seconds got me second place by only a second, mainly because I had to correct the faulty text recognition a couple of times.

Read the full review at Crispy Gamer