The Nintendo DS has been selling like gangbusters in America and in Japan, and one of the reasons why is the Nintendo “Touch Generations” series of games. Some gamers may call them “casual” games but they do make you think and can be quite fun and addictive to play.

As seems to be the norm with any successful game, Nintendo has attempted to bring the fun of Big Brain Academy over to the Wii from the DS. It is simply not possible to bring a hand held game over even with the unique wii-mote controls and get a satisfying videogame experience and this game proves it.

On paper, it must have sounded like a great idea: just like the DS game, bring over 15 minigames to test your brain and come up with a ‘brain score’ which is displayed in weight – the heavier your brain, the smarter you are in this game. The idea of a brain age in the DS game of the same name made a whole lot more sense.

At the start of the game, you’ll have a character which bears a striking resemblance to Mr. Hanky from South Park (except he’s white, has glasses, a cap and a moustache) who does all the grading. You’ll see plenty of Miis wondering around the ‘school’. You’ll start by enrolling your Mii (or a generic one created by the game) into the Academy.

You can play games in solo mode (practice or test), or group mode (three additional modes). The practice mode allows you to try any of the 15 mini games that make up the entire game. Yes, I said fifteen games, which is the same number found in the Nintendo DS version of the game. All that space on the game disc and they couldn’t offer more games? Are you kidding me? The test mode will randomly select five mini games and give you a rating based on how fast you answer the question and whether or not the answers are correct.

The games in test or practice mode are not addictive; instead they are bland and boring. Some do make you think for a moment, but more brain power is probably used in the Wario Ware minigames as they are more of a challenge. There are five categories of minigames: Identify, Visualize, Memorize, Compute and Analyze. There are three games in each category, giving us the fifteen (see, I can multiply 5x3, my brain must weigh 2000 grams!).

An example of a minigame is “Whack Match.” You are told which items to “whack” in a game of Whack a Mole. You move the Wii mote over the hole that you want to hit and you press A. Once you do it, that test is over. Another one is called “Species Spotlight” where you use the Wiimote like a flashlight and figure out how many animals there are in the dark and select the species that has the most crawling around in the dark. Exciting stuff huh?