Toujin No Negoto　★　唐人の寝言

まる書いてどんどん覚える驚異のつがわ式漢字記憶術 maru kaite dondon oboeru kyoui no tsugawa shiki kanji kioku jutsu

Also see here for an older post related to this.

I've talked briefly about this game before, but please let me explain again. This is a game for the Nintendo DS aimed at a primarily Japanese audience. It's basically a kanji-teaching game, but its done in a unique way.

Basically, what Professor Tsugawa (I'm pretty sure he's a professor) thought one day was, hey why don't we just circle the areas that are the hardest to remember, use all out mental energy to focus on that one spot and remember it that way?

Yeah sounds like a poorly designed X-men power, but surprisingly it works. So in this game, you can go through a few random categories, like business, or everyday life. Only problem with a kanji game like this is that it's not great for beginner to intermediate foreigners, though great for the upper level students.

So why go out of my way to praise a game that I've already talked about before and don't really recommend to all?

Let me explain. Along with this title, the same creators made another game, that was not as widely available (read: there was no downloadable ROM image *ahem*). Now this version is the beginner or lower intermediate's dream. It'll take you through kanji from the beginning of the Japanese elementary level to the end of junior high.

This really is great. You have an actual start and finish! And if you finish this game, then you can go ahead and start on the original version.

For those of you who own a DS and the appropriate hardware, I will just give you the following information. I can't openly condone ROMs, but I will note that the original version's release number is 1305 and the new one is 3454. Good hunting!