Lower your eye age with Nintendo's Vision Training DS

They say focus is what makes Lewis Hamilton the driver that he is. Well that, masses of talent, access to a £10 million driving simulator, and a car that probably cost about £300 million to develop. But other than those things, yes, it's all about being able to see clearly.

So after sharpening our brains with Dr Kawashima's Brain Training, Nintendo's now moving on to help us in areas such as hand-eye co-ordination, peripheral vision, dynamic visual acuity, momentary vision and eye movement (whatever those all mean).

Basically, as everything serious on the DS tends to, it boils down to carrying out a short set of mini-games on a daily basis. This will provide your 'Eye Age' – something that practice over time should improve.

As with Brain Training, Vision Training also features a calendar that tracks the days on which you've done your training by giving you a stamp per day. The more stamps you collect, the more activities and sports-based training activities are unlocked. And every time you complete an activity, your results are added to your performance graph so that you can track your progress.

As for the mini-games, these will include such delights as:

Box Tap – furiously tap a series of moving red boxes before they disappear.

Number Flash – a sequence of numbers flashes briefly on the top screen. You must choose the correct number.

Letter Count – quickly memorise the target letter, then count how many times it appears as a fast-moving series of letters scroll across the screen.

Symbol Order – three symbols flash on the screen in series in any of the 12 boxes. The challenge is to remember each symbol and then enter all three symbols in the order in which they appeared.

Box Track – a circle is placed in one of three boxes. You have to follow the box with the circle in it as the three shuffle rapidly on the screen and then choose the box containing the circle.

Fast Match – quickly look at the two symbols as they flash on the screen, then decide if they matched.

Circle Spot – symbols appear for a split second in 12 boxes. You must tap the only circle among the symbols.

Baseball – tap a ball as the pitch crosses the plate to score a hit. With each hit, the box gets bigger, making it more challenging to hit the speeding pitch.

Boxing – pummel a punch mitt by tapping the centre of the target before your sparring partner lowers it.

Table Tennis – slide your stylus across the screen to volley the ball back. Survive 40 volleys to earn a perfect score.

Vision Training (which Nintendo tells us remains a tentative title; it will be called Flash Focus: Vision Training in Minutes a Day in the US) is due to be released before the end of the year.