Big Brain Academy began as a brain boosting game that came out for the Nintendo DS a while back and has now been ported over to the Wii.
Basically, the game consists of a series of brain straining exercises, that are spread over 5 different categories: Compute, Analyze, Memorize, Identify and Visualize. If any of you have toyed around with Wii Fit you will quickly see that this game works on pretty much the same ideas, except exercising your brain instead of your body.
You have the ability to practice all of the different exercises and then take the test to see how well you fare. You are then presented with a score that grades you according to your performance as well as a chart which shows which areas you are strongest and weakest in.
While the mini-game type exercises are decently done and really do make you flex your grey matter, I was disappointed with them once I realised that I had seen pretty much all the game had to offer within the first half an hour of play. You can continue doing the tests and the difficulty will vary, but without new fresh exercises to keep you interested, the novelty of the game soon wears thin.
I can see that this type of game will be very popular with parents who want something educational and constructive for their children, but for anyone else you will soon find that you won’t be bothered to put the game in again as there is nothing new for you to experience or explore.
The game does have some multiplayer modes, allowing gamers to go head to head in an effort to prove who has the biggest head in the house. It also has a neat feature that lets you put yourself up against anyone else’s profiles on the Wii where the game will simulate the other persons strengths and weaknesses.
I really think that with the move over to the Wii the developers would have benefited heavily from adding in a ton of new content and variation to keep the player coming back. Unfortunately, with such a limited line-up of activities there is only so much you can take until you eventually get bored and load up something else.
Scoring:
Gameplay: 8/10 [The games are fun and work well with the WiiMote]
Presentation: 7/10 [A little bland, just like a real classroom]
Sound: 6/10 [The narrator’s mumbling can get on your nerves]
Value: 6/10 [With such a limited set of activities, you will soon find yourself bored]
Overall: 6/10 [There is just too little game in this game]
Better than: [Doing actual homework]
Worse than: [Having a hot math teacher]
Last Updated: June 25, 2008
