It’s hard to imagine how a game that forces you to do (gasp!) math and simple, timed logic puzzles would ever become a killer app for any system, but that’s exactly what happened when Nintendo released Brain Age for its touch-screen DS handheld in 2006. In those pre-iPhone days, mothers, children, grandparents, and folks who’d never touched a gaming system before were captivated by the game’s promise to “condition” your reflexes and thinking prowess to be younger and more alert. Hell, at the time, the game had us hooked, too.

Now, five years later and with a whole new tech to tackle in Kinect, the minds behind Brain Age — including Japanese neuroscientist Dr. Kawashima — are trying to strike gold once again with the same formula in Body and Brain Connection. To grade your brain every day, the game’s very bare-bones presentation lets you work your way through a series of three varying “exercises,” ranging from color-coded matching puzzles to punching numbered balloons in lowest-to-highest order.

Pissed off that Body and Brain says you’ve got the gooey faculties of a supercentenarian? Then you, in the form of your 360 Avatar, can do some daily exercises recommended by the kind-faced Kawashima to improve your letter grades and prepare for each day’s brain-age test. Aaaaand…that’s it. Seriously.

Sure, you can do round-robin group playthroughs where you face off against up to three local buddies in varying exercises to see who gets the best score. And you can comb through all the activities — which are grouped into Math, Physical, Logic, and other categories — on your own in a Custom option on any difficulty (Beginner, Intermediate, and so on). But ultimately, what’s here seems thin at best. As a handheld game, it made perfect sense for Brain Age to keep the “learn as you go every day” mentality short, sweet, and fast. But as a full, stand-alone Kinect game with overly twitchy responsiveness and a glut of exercises ranging from bizarre (flag-raising) to tepid (pattern-matching) to an excuse for full-body motion (whack a mole), it just doesn’t merit a $50 purchase. Want a way to reap the benefits of multitasking physical and mental activity? Read a book on a treadmill instead.

On Xbox 360 (with Kinect)

+ Very easy to play and learn most of the activities. Key word: most.

- Incredibly spartan presentation and number of gameplay options…

- …and you’ll feel little “connection” to what’s here.

? Why are we so entranced by lightbulb mascot Wattson’s grooving silhouette during the loading screens?

4.0