Only about two months ago Nintendo released Brain Age for the Nintendo DS. Much was made of the fact that doctors endorsed the product and it actually helped to make your brain younger and more fit. Well, if you’ve already gotten tired of the brain teasers in Brain Age, and really don’t care that the medical types have moved on to something serious like curing cancer, you can pick up Big Brain Academy. This latest brain trainer from Nintendo is mildly entertaining and does make you think a bit, but in my opinion the challenge may not even last as long as the Brain Age experience.
Your academy exams will be overseen by the chatty-and-so-smug-he-loves-the-smell-of-his-own-farts Professor Lobe. This little annoyance will have you wanting to reach into the screen and perform a lobotomy on the sucker. Sadly you can’t. But an “Operation” board-game style brain surgery mini-game on this little pest to take out his thought processing centers would have been a great reward for a high score.
Big Brain Academy tests your brain in five areas: compute, identify, think, memorize and analyze. Compute tests you with math questions. Identify tests your ability to visually identify things. Think requires the player to employ logic. Memorize tests memory from sights and sounds. Analyze questions require reasoning skills.
Within each of the broad categories are three tests that measure the brain’s skill at that category. This means there are a total of 15 different tests. Each on its own is not really hard. You’ll be doing everything from repeating a series of played sounds like in a Simon game to identifying the shadows that certain objects would cast. All of the answers are input with the stylus on the touch screen.
What makes the tasks challenging is that in each test the answer must not only be right, but must also be arrived at and entered quickly. There is a timer that counts down for each test and the game will give you as many questions as you can answer until time runs out. My biggest problem was that my reflexes were not fast enough to answer large numbers of questions. Those I answered I got right, but I could never answer enough to get the really good scores. When I tried to pour on the speed, I ended up punching the wrong answer in my haste.
There are three ways to play Big Brain Academy. The main mode is Test. In Test you will be given, at random, tests in all five of the categories of the game. At the end you’ll be scored and given a brain weight and letter grade for your efforts. Practice allows you to pick one category and play the three tests for that category at three different difficulty levels. Versus lets you challenge your friends to match their brain against yours in a test of mental agility. In Versus up to eight players can compete via the wireless function of the DS (Sorry, no WiFi on this one.) The player who answers the question first gets a bonus for speed, but all correct answers in the allotted time get some points. Getting an answer wrong subtracts points. The first player to a set score wins. Versus works with a single card or with multiple cards.
As you might expect, the presentation is no great shakes. The simple graphics nicely communicate what needs to be seen to answer questions, but they are pretty simplistic. Sound is also quite minimal.
Control is very well executed with the possibility of accidentally answering wrong at an absolute minimum – if you have the reactions. Nintendo once again made a game that positively plays to the strengths of the system and its controls. Too bad Sony can’t fully learn that lesson with the PSP.
With only 15 different tests to play, Big Brain Academy can quickly get to be an exercise in just answering faster rather than having you brain participate in new activities. The game is a blast to play with for a little while, but it just does not last as a diversion. A solid “B” for doing what it does right, but no higher for limited activities. - Will Jayson Hill.
