NINTENDO’S FLASH FOCUS OFFERS A NEW VISION FOR VIDEO GAMES

Fun Eye Exercises Challenge Hand-Eye Coordination, Peripheral Vision

REDMOND, Wash., Oct. 15, 2007 – The new Flash Focus™: Vision Training in Minutes a Day is like nothing you’ve ever seen before. Just as Nintendo’s brain-training games gave your gray matter a workout, Flash Focus aims to train users’ eyes in areas like hand-eye coordination, peripheral vision and visual acuity. It launches today, exclusively for Nintendo DS™.

It might sound like a strange concept, but top athletes have long used high-tech computerized visual training programs to give them an edge on the baseball diamond, basketball court and football field. Now Nintendo makes this remarkable technology available to anyone who wants to have fun while tracking improvements in the various visual exercises. It’s a great tool for moms who like to keep a “peripheral vision” watch on their kids or for people who want an edge spotting holiday sales.

“Flash Focus represents another one of our software titles that delivers fun with a purpose,” says George Harrison, Nintendo of America’s senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications. “Flash Focus should be in the training arsenal of every coach in the country, but it’s also ideal for casual game players of any age who want to keep their vision sharp.”

The first time users pop in Flash Focus: Vision Training in Minutes a Day, they take a series of tests to determine their DS Eye Age. As users spend a few minutes each day with the activities, they get better and better at the exercises and their Eye Age lowers to demonstrate their improved focus abilities.

Some of the many fun activities in Flash Focus: Vision Training in Minutes a Day include:

  • A variation of the hidden ball “hat dance” seen at baseball parks: A circle is placed in one of three boxes, and the user must follow the location of the circle as the boxes shuffle rapidly on the screen.
  • Watching two symbols flash on the screen, then tapping the touch screen to indicate whether they matched.
  • Memorizing a target letter and counting how many times it appears in a fast-moving stream of letters on the screen.

The worldwide innovator in the creation of interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its Wii™, Nintendo DS™, Game Boy® Advance and Nintendo GameCube™ systems. Since 1983, Nintendo has sold nearly 2.4 billion video games and more than 420 million hardware units globally, and has created industry icons like Mario™, Donkey Kong®, Metroid®, Zelda™ and Pokémon®. A wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for Nintendo’s operations in the Western Hemisphere. For more information about Nintendo, visit the company’s Web site at www.nintendo.com.