Nintendo’s Wii is known primarily as a video game system that involves motion and interaction. But the Wii is also known for its ability to stretch your mind; Nintendo has capitalized on the “brain games” market, a corner of the video game world that is usually reserved for younger children, by creating fun brain games that captivate both children and adults. With a slew of titles that emphasize logic and thought as well as physical elements, Wii brain exercise is a fun way to keep your mind sharp and enhance your brain power.
Vocabulary
The Wii features several games that focus on and develop your vocabulary skills. Titles such as "Margot’s Word Brain" and "My Word Coach" help you build your word base regardless of your age or skill level. Each of these games are comprised of smaller mini games that help improve your spelling and word recognition as well as increase your overall English language capabilities.
Memory
Many games for Wii will help fine-tune your memorization skills. "Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree" devotes an entire category to memorization, bringing to bat a slew of mini-games and challenges that work your memory. "Safecracker" is another game that focuses on building your memory. In "Safecracker," you are in a mansion and must find the deed by breaking the 35 safe combinations; remembering the objects within the mansions’ rooms, as well as the previous combinations, will help you in this task.
Logic and Reasoning
Games such as "Puzzler Collection" and "Rooms: The Main Building" will help you build your logic and reasoning skills. Puzzler Collection involves more traditional logic games, including crosswords, Sudoku and word searches, to help stimulate your logic skills. In Rooms: The Main Building, you are trapped in a dream-world house and must slide the rooms back and forth--akin to old-fashioned slider puzzles--and use objects within each room to escape the house.
Math
Some people may feel that math games are for developing children’s math skills, but in the adult world, math remains important as you balance checkbooks and budgets. "THINK: Logic Trainer," while focusing primarily on logic, devotes a large portion of the game to helping keep your mathematical skills sharp. "Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree" also devotes one of its five sections to computation skills, stimulating you with myriad math problems and challenges.
Brain Rehab
The most potent form of Wii brain exercise occurs through the Wii’s physical games. Your brain controls your motor skills, and many hospitals are using the Wii and games such as "Wii Fit" for their ability to develop physical skills to help people who have suffered brain trauma. Whether a person has suffered internal brain injury from stroke, automotive accidents, or combat incidents, the Wii can be used to rehabilitate the damaged parts of your brain as well as form new brain networks to help you regain the physical skills you once had.
