Nintendo has ported a DS game over to the Wii U for the first time

With little fanfare, Nintendo has released the first DS game onto the Wii U in Japan. Brain Age, a brain-training game that sold over 19 million copies worldwide, is available for free download on the Wii U’s Virtual Console until June 30th. It’s a surprising move — president Satoru Iwata announced back in January that DS games would come to the service, but little has been heard of the initiative since. Nintendo released the first batch of Game Boy Advance titles for Virtual Console in April.

Puzzle-poser Brain Age is the first DS game to arrive on Wii U Virtual Console, and it’s out now in Japan for free until June 30. Nintendo revealed plans in January to add the DS to Virtual Console on Wii U, but it’s unknown if Brain Age is headed West or when other DS games may come to the system. When approached on the matter, a spokesperson for Nintendo UK told Joystiq, “We have nothing to announce at this time.” To use its oh-so-catchy full title, Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day! hit Japan’s store shelves back in 2005. The West didn’t see it until 2006, but that didn’t stop the brain-teaser going on to notch 19 million sales worldwide. It also didn’t stop our love affair with Dr Kawashima’s floating polygonal dome, even if he couldn’t understand our thick Manchester accent.