Pre-orders for the Nintendo DS mental exercise game Brain Age have soared on buzz of daily training that can keep brains in shape.
On Monday's Amazon.com Computer and Video Games sales charts, Brain Age leaped from #135 to the #5 position.
The game will be released to retail next week in the U.S.
The Brain Age series has sold 3.3M units to date in Japan in a craze that has consumers who normally shy from video games participating in computation, memorization, and identification tests.
Brain Age is inspired by a book written by Professor Ryuta Kawashima. Kawashima explains to players that like a human body, the brain can exercise through quick, simple exercises in reading, writing, and arithmetic.
Nintendo will release the follow-up to Brain Age, called Big Brain Academy next month.