Many video games are inspired by novels, movies, music, or even other games; it appears that the latter is the case with the face ofBrain Age’s iconic Dr. Kawashima.The newBrain Agehas been out for a while, but as revealed in an interview, Dr. Kawashima’s face is actually based on the face another well-known video game character.
Various details about the newBrain Agegame, such asits compatibility with the Nintendo Switch Lite, were coming out in the lead-up to its release. In January, director and producer Kouchi Kawamoto sat down for an interview along with neuroscientist Dr. Ryuta Kawashima—the namesake of Dr. Kawashima.
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One of the topics discussed in the interview was the inspiration behind Dr. Kawashima’s face, which actually isn’t based off of the real Dr. Ryuta Kawashima’s face. Instead, Kawamoto reveals that Dr. Kawashima’s face inBrain Agewas actually inspired by the design of Andross fromStar Fox. Specifically, Kawamoto says it was inspired by Andross’s blocky appearance:
In our initial proposal, we planned to use Dr. Kawashima’s actual likeness, but it felt really strange having his actual face appear in the DS game. So afterward, we put together another idea that had Dr. Kawashima illustrated as a character with a graduation cap on, but our department head at the time, Takahashi, saw it and said, “Nah, this is no good.” He gave us a few suggestions and from there we imagined the final boss from “Star Fox”, and that’s how we decided on this rough, polygonal look.
For fans ofStar Fox, it’s nice to see Andross being mentioned. Aside fromStar Foxbeing featured inStarlink: Battle for Atlason Switch, the series hasn’t received much love from Nintendo as of late. The inspiration for Dr. Kawashima’s face would be interesting to learn no matter what, but for knowing that it’s Andross makes its all the better.
Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Trainingis out on Nintendo Switch, exclusively in Japan, Europe, and Australia. A North American release has not yet been announced.
