Dr Kawashima's Body and Brain Exercises Review

First he tested our brains. Now he wants to test our bodies too.

Yes it's the return of Dr Kawashima, the Japanese neuroscientist who hooked millions of Nintendo DS owners on a daily diet of mental agility tests and brain age assessments.

Now he's out to measure the brainpower of Kinect owners with the added twist of tests that track your physical coordination and reflexes.

There are 20 tests in total, divided into five types: maths, reflexes, logic, memory and physical. None are arduous. The brain tests are firmly in primary-school territory and even the morbidly obese would struggle to work up a sweat with the physical challenges.

Instead the focus is on quick thinking. The faster your response time, the better your brain age score.

But while the tests are simple, most boast a playful inventiveness and polish that lifts the whole game above the uninspiring mass of Kinect titles.

There's a version of Pac-Man where you dodge ghosts by guiding characters around with your hands and a frantic memory game where you catch pizzas as they roll off the production line. In another test you use your arms as a bridge to guide toy cars into the zone that matches their colour.

It isn't perfect. Its multiplayer mode, where players take turns to play, is forgettable beyond its game-show presentation. Some tests are no more than thinly disguised multiple-choice questions and the menus are a tad too quick to read your movements as decisions.

But there's enough gentle fun and supportive encouragement from Dr Kawashima's digital alter ego to keep you entertained for the few minutes of daily play it's designed to get.