Big Brain Academy (Wii)

There are several parts to this game. There is a "test" covering 5 areas of mental agility: identification, memory, analytical ability, computational ability and visualisation. Each area has three games such as identifying a fragmented picture, recognising faces, choosing the correct rotating shape, deciding whether more red or blue balls have gone into a basket, choosing the odd picture out. Each game has 4 levels of difficulty from easy through to expert, giving you a reasonable variety of play. To sit the test you go through all the games and get an overall score in "brain weight" and a grade at the end. There is also a practice section which allows you to choose to play games individually at your desired level and earn medals (bronze, silver, gold and platinum).

In addition to this part of the game there are 3 "group" games. Some you can play on your own, other games allow you to play in turn with someone else, or in a head-to-head simultaneous sprint. The fun thing about some of these sections is that new games pop up to save you from the repetition of the main 15 games.

As a near 40 year old I quite enjoy this. My 4 year old son can play and enjoy some of the games that don't involve reading words. So, like other reviewers, I find that this can bridge the age-gap in electronic gaming.

My only concern with this game is the implication that in "training" your brain it is somehow going to make you more clever. I am a neuropsychologist and loathe the cod-science that suggests that the brain is like a muscle - the more you use it the stronger it will become. This is not founded in scientific fact. You can get a practice effect on whatever task you are doing - with these games the more often you play them, the more familiar they are, the faster you can complete them so your score increases. It's a distracting bit of fun, it's not going to make you more clever than you already are!

I can recommend this game as good family entertainment.

Bought for £20 new and sealed. Easy to play but also fun and challenging. Not as hard as I expected as I find high scores are effected by the speed you answer with as opposed to the question itself being tricky. But, I guess that keeps the game quick and exciting. Very nice presentation, quirky and bright/clear. Good with a friend playing together or against one another. Good use of Mii characters resulting in extra laughs and overall charm. Defiantely one of the best 'mini game games' on the Wii. Nice variety in question types and a cool reulsts board that displays your strongest/weakest category. Fun to try and get better results and improve your mental weak points. Well worth buying, these sort of games should be released for less then standard retail price so it's good that this one was.

Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree takes the same basic structure as the first Big Brain game, which appeared on the DS just over a year ago. It's essentially a sequel to the original game because it doesn't duplicate the games found on the DS, but instead replaces them with a collection of new brain-teasing minigames. Now whilst the Wii doesn't need another mini-game collection, Big Brain Academy is different enough from the average WarioWare or Mario Party-style collection to find its own niche on the platform that players of the first game should find enjoyable.

The whole game takes place under the guise of making your brain bigger and heavier, which is, of course, complete nonsense. Unlike its counterpart, Brain Training, Big Brain makes no legitimate claim about actually improving your mind; Big Brain just lets you play minigames in random sequences and gives you a score at the end based on your performance. You can compare these scores with other players locally, and you can also send them over to your online friends so they can compare their scores with your scores.

The different games are broken up into groups named after the sort of brain training they're having you do, such as compute or identify. Each game is very simple to understand, as they intuitively use the pointing and clicking features of the Wii Remote. The Wii speaker is used both for encouragement and, in one neat minigame, as a phone. In that minigame, you must listen to customers ordering food and then duplicate their order on the screen. However, most of the minigames are more basic than that, such as one where a series of number-bearing balloons appear, and you have to pop them in order from lowest to highest. Another shows you four pictures and asks you to choose the pictures that fit different criteria. For example, if the game merely says "wings," you might find yourself clicking on a photo of a duck and an airplane, but not a gorilla or a swimmer. Right off the bat, the practice modes in the game let you go to town on 15 different games, but the other modes mix in games that don't appear in the practice menu, giving you a reason to skip around and try everything out.

Visually, Big Brain Academy has a basic but functional look to it. It's never flashy, but it also has a very clean and direct look, which fits with the school-like tone of the game. The Mii system is integrated into the game, so things like your student record book will have your Mii face on it. The audio is good as well. A fair amount of speech comes out of the Wii speaker, but most of it is just encouragement from a female voice that eggs you on as you play. The music and sound effects are also catchy and pleasant.

While fans of the Wii's other minigame compilations might find Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree a little more basic than the rest, the game stands apart by simply offering different types of slightly more thought-intensive minigames. It's not rocket science, but if you're after something slightly headier than the Mario Party-style of waving the Wii Remote around like a lunatic while mashing the A button as hard as you possibly can, you'll probably enjoy your time here, and the bargain price makes it all the more attractive.