Brain Training celebrates 100 consecutive weeks in UK charts

We're still awaiting official confirmation from Nintendo that it's definitely the case, but a couple of sites are reporting the grand news that Dr Kawashima's Brain Training celebrates its 100th consecutive week in the UK charts this week.

It's maybe unsurprising - as of the end of 2007, the game has sold 11.71 million copies worldwide. It's become quite a phenomenon, in part thanks to Nintendo's multi-pronged attack of targeting different markets to the usual game-playing crowd and lining up a range of celebrities, including Nicole Kidman, Chris Tarrant and Zoe Ball to advertise the game.

We could miserably blame the chirpy Dr Kawashima for the influx of copy-cat brain training games that are everywhere. And for inspiring publishers to release so many casual games that the DS section in game shops contains far more pink and ponies than 'proper' stuff like guns and elves.

But it seems a little churlish, so instead we'll ponder on the positives - such as whether exposure to Mr Kawashima's intellect might profoundly affect the aspirations of the younger generations playing the game. Let's look at the evidence: a recent survey reported by the BBC revealed that more than a third of teachers say their pupils want to be 'famous for the sake of being famous' when they grow up.

Right. Thanks for nothing, Kawashima.