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Big Brain Academy review

Game: Big Brain Academy
Platform: DS
Genre: Casual (Educational)
Developer: Nintendo

Reader review by Robot_Vampire

February 26, 2008

Big Brain Academy is a sequel to the smash-hit game Brain Age. It follows the same basic principals as it's predecessor by giving you an examination of your brain after completing various mini-games. The game only contains 15 different mini-games for you to test your brain on, although fun they do start to get repetitive after a while and this is the game's main fault.

The games are used to test your brain and thus they are split up into 6 different sections. These are; Thinking, Memorizing, Analyzing, Identifying and computing. Each has 3 mini-games that provide a different challenge. Computing skills are basically you using numbers to solve problems, for example, one challenge will give you two sets of coins and you'll have to figure out which selection represents the higher amount. The others are basically what they say, memorizing games will have remembering things, identifying games will have you figuring out what shape goes into the shadow and such. Although the 3 mini-games are all different in context and give you new questions each time you try them, they can get tedious and boring quickly.

It features 3 different modes and these come in the form of Practice, Test and Versus. Practice is where you'll hone your skills so you can do better in the test. The game gives you all 15 challenges in the mode and supplies you with 3 different difficulties to try it on, this is where you'll be spending most of your time throughout the game. The game kindly saves your scores for you and the professor gives you a medal and a brain weight depending on how well you do.

The test is where you'll find out how much your brain weighs, basically the higher score the score you get the more your brain weighs. The test will challenge you in all 5 different sections and give you a random mini-game to compete in. At the end of the test you'll be given a brain weight judging on how well you got plus you'll also be given a grade. The grade (ranging from A-D) tells you've what kind of brain you got, for example, a D is a Museum Curator. The game also features a versus mode and this is where you compete against your friends in the mini-games using a single game card so all your friends with a DS can play with you too.You all start with the same task and race to the finish, you lose points for an incorrect answer and you gain more points if you finish first. The mode albeit fun can also get boring after a while as the 15 games don't last very long, once you've tried them all with your friends there'll only be a few that you come back to.

The graphics in the game are basic but they work with the simplistic approach the game is trying to go for, so they're not good for the usual DS games but they suit the game well. The sound is fairly simple, once again but unlike the graphics it gets repetitive and you soon won't want to listen to it. However some of the mini-games require you to hear the sounds of the game so you can correspond to them within the question.

Overall the game is fun while it lasts. The graphics suit the game and the mini-games are fun but the game is let down by a repetitive soundtrack and by it's long lasting value. Big Brain Academy is a fun game and at a budget price it is worth it..

Rating: 7/10

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