Nintendo wants you to believe that its latest DS game, Flash Focus: Vision training in minutes a day, improves your eyesight, much like its Brain Age strengthens your noodle. Our exhaustive tests, however, proved two things: A.) We still can't see, and B.) We're $19.99 poorer.

First, and foremost, there's no proof that Brain Age makes you smarter, but Nintendo made us believe that it does, thanks to a series of math exercises and instruction from talking head Dr. Kawashima. Flash Focus, however, feels like a second rate product. Instead of a virtual scientist (the manual has some dude named Professor Ishigaki, though we don't see him in the game), you have some pixilated cartoon character, and none of the games seem geared towards the eye. Not that we expected Nintendo to shove an ophthalmology clinic in there and blow air into our eyeballs, but it would have been nice to see vision charts, tests to recognize colors and other activities. Instead, we hit a boxer's gloves, repeatedly tap the same point on the screen to hit baseballs and jot down quickly disappearing numbers, all the while choosing from such thrilling titles as Box Track and Circle Spot. We understand Nintendo wants to keep things simple for all audiences, but surely the company that pumps out Mario and Donkey Kong games could think up something more engaging than Fast Match or Number Flash.

Much like Brain Age, you go through a few activities a day. The process takes all of 10 minutes, and then you have the option to play games "for fun". The only incentive comes from unlocking new difficulty levels and games, though you can cheat by messing with the DS' internal clock. Just don't get too crazy. The lack of multiplayer and bonus goodies (the Brain Age games feature Sudoku puzzles) means you'll uncover Flash Focus' secrets in about an hour.

Had Nintendo put more effort into it, Flash Focus could've been a sweet companion to its brainy counterparts, but it does nothing but make us wish we were playing something with more eye candy.

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