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The Wii sequel to Big Brain Academy for Nintendo DS includes three multiplayer modes for up to eight players. Players also can exchange student-record books with other players over WiiConnect24 and compete against their save data. With 15 new activities that challenge the brain in single-player Test and Practice modes, Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree sees how players measure up in five categories: Identify, Memorize, Analyze, Compute and Visualize. All activities are designed around the Wii Remote's pointer. Players can play solo with one Wii Remote, or pass it around like a relay baton in group competitions. Sample activities: The activities in Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree are fun minigames with a ton of variety, and they're meant to be played rapid-fire for a short time as players push their brains to do more than they did the day before. Here are three of the activities included in the game: - Art Parts: In this Visualize activity, players must complete the sample painting by stamping the missing pieces onto an unfinished scene. When it becomes more difficult, Art Parts flips the unfinished scene sideways or flips it upside-down.
- Balloon Burst: In this Compute activity, players must pop balloons in rising numerical order. At its easiest, there are few balloons shown at once. On a higher difficulty level, Balloon Burst sends in more balloons, including some with negative numbers.
- Fast Focus: In this Identify activity, players see a distorted image that slowly returns to normal. Players must select what it is as soon as they figure it out. As it grows more difficult, Fast Focus starts with a more heavily distorted image, so it takes longer to identify what it is.
How to progress through the game: When players start a new game, they'll meet the whimsical Dr. Lobe, who will suggest that they take on the Test mode challenge: playing all 15 activities that span the five brainy categories. He'll tell players how big their brain is based on how well they did and how fast they did it. He'll encourage players to take the Test often and to use Practice mode to beef up their skills in all 15 of the activities. Practice mode also offers three difficulty levels for each activity, and Dr. Lobe will award several medals for high achievement in each one.
Multiplayer: Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree offers three ways for groups to play:
- Mental Marathon: Speed through activities to buy more time to stay in the game. Go it solo or as a team, but if anyone botches an activity, the game is done (1-8 players, one Wii Remote).
- Mind Sprint: Form a team to compete against a system-controlled competitor that "thinks" like a selected student record (1-4 players with one Wii Remote). Or separate into two teams (2-8 players with two Wii Remotes). The first side to complete a set number of problems wins.
- Brain Quiz: Play game-show style with up to four teams that compete in a total of 20 activities, since five extra activities are available in this mode. (1-8 players, one Wii Remote)
Mii compatibility: Everyone who enrolls in the academy will choose a Mii, which will walk down the school's hallway and pop up during Wii Remote handoffs to help explain which teammate goes next in multiplayer matches. Wii Remote audio: Players will get encouragement and hear color commentary from a "Wii Remote Coach" who speaks to the player through the Wii Remote speakers. WiiConnect24: In Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree, players can send and receive student-record books full of brainy data. By establishing WiiConnect24 ties with Wii Friends who own the game, players can all see their academies affected in several fun ways: - Compare distant students' test scores with those of the local student body on the Student Scores board. Distant students' records are shown as books.
- Compete against distant students' brains in Mind Sprint. Players actually play against game-controlled competitors that "think" based on brainy strengths and weaknesses in their student records.
- The distant player's "Mii student" will walk the hallways with the player's own student body. Players can make WiiConnect24 connections with many students, adding many Miis to their crowd.
Players are encouraged to send and receive each others' records frequently, so that their academies have up-to-date results for competition and comparison. In this way, individual academies can join a personal network of schools and push each other to develop their brains further.
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- Brawl with Other Brains! The Wii sequel includes three multiplayer modes for up to eight players. You can also exchange training data with other players over WiiConnect24 and compete against their save data.
- Weigh Your Brain! With 15 new Activities that challenge your brain in single-player Test and Practice modes, Big Brain Academy Wii sees how you measure up in five categories: memory, analysis, number crunching, visual recognition, and quick thinking.
- Train with the Wii Remote! All Activities are designed around the Wii Remote's Pointer, so you can have fun learning from the comfort of your couch with one Wii Remote, or pass around two Wii Remotes for group competitions.
- Mii data compatible.
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 Great game, esp for non-gamers |
| Review Date: July 12, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Kip, TX |
The Brain Academy series has been extremely popular, especially among non-gamers. I remember taking the DS version home for Xmas once, and all four members of the family were fighting for the DS the entire time in order to improve their scores.
The Wii version is a lot of fun, and the new controls carried over perfectly. Both my current roommates (non-gamers) are completely hooked (one of them joked about how he daydreamed all day at work to come home and play!)
My only complaint is that you keep hoping for a couple more games for variety, or a more developed multiplayer mode (the current modes are fun, just leaves you wishing for just a bit more...)
A great purchase. |
Great For All Ages
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| Review Date: July 30, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Talena T. Mobley, Luverne, Alabama United States |
| Kids from age 5 to adults age 70+ have played this game at my home and loved it. Adults will get a real mental workout once they get to expert level. Mr. Lobe gets irritating but you can buzz through him fairly quick. I would give this to all the kids in my family if their parents could only find a Wii system. |
Great Fun
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| Review Date: June 19, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Victor Wai Tak Kam, Pasadena, CA United States |
Terrific fun. Especially multiplayer, incredible experience. This is one of those rare games my wife can actually beat me at so it's great laughs for both of us. We love the "Mind Sprint" mode, where the two of you race to finish a number of activities. The other 2 multiplayer modes offer something totally different. The "Marathon" mode basically is a test for your consistent accuracy. The "Quiz" mode is about getting the highest number of total points; we had a lot of fun with this when we had 6 people playing this mode, and divided up into 2 teams.
For comparison, this is better than Warioware. No wacky wiimote waggles, but if you liked Warioware, you'd like this for sure. If you didn't like Warioware, you might actually like this because the activities in here actually make sense (as opposed to those in Warioware).
People say this game lacks depth, but I suggest otherwise. It's about the practice and improvement as a result from the practice. Otherwise, you're not pushing yourself and it defeats the purpose of a mental workout. What more can you ask for than having fun during a mental workout? Aim for a Platinum medal for ALL of the activities--at least up to the HARD levels. The EXPERT level can get extremely difficult for some of the activities--like the bird cage one, for instance. I just can't do it, not even getting a gold medal.
Last thing I want to comment on is the control. The control is excellent. I find it hard to believe, but I feel like I get better control out of the wiimote pointing at the TV than the mouse on the monitor. I have a steadier hand than most people, so maybe that's a factor, but moving across the screen requires a lot less motion than the mouse and also results in higher accuracy.
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COOL GAME
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| Review Date: September 3, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Melanie Chipman, Boise, ID |
| Our whole family just loves this game. Even my 6 year old can do a great job in each category! My husband and I love doing the mental marathon's together to see who can get done the fastest! You can also play against others who aren't available if you are playing singly. The computer will play how the other person would play if they were actually playing based on their history. It's a very cool, fun game that anyone can play! |
May not be for children under 12
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| Review Date: July 23, 2007 |
| Reviewer: A. Lee, Oakland, California |
| This is a great game for the Wii....for Adults. Not sure it's for kids under 12 as its a bit complicated. Certain questions are grade school level such as when you're supposed to pop the balloons from lowest to highest in number and the numbers are -21, -1, 67, 78, 85. Not all mini games are for 2+ players, but the ones that are, it's great head to head competition. |
Fun for all
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| Review Date: July 8, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Robert Santos, Salinas,Ca |
| This game is more fun then i expected it has online play which i was not aware of. I purchased it for my daughter and she loves it. |
Big Brain Academy, Possibly the Best Wii Game!
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| Review Date: November 25, 2007 |
| Reviewer: , |
| Big Brain Academy is awesome! Big Brain Academy requires reflexes, smarts, and memorization. You need to work hard to get a good grade. I haven't gotten a perfect score yet but I think it will be worth it. It is really good family fun. You can pick up some skills from Big Brain Academy and it will be fun to practice and then challenge your friends and beat them at it. Unless of course they have the game too. Almost all of my family has signed up for Big Brain Academy and we can play it for hours! I don't regret getting the game at all and I highly recommend it. |
Really entertaining
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| Review Date: July 6, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Megan, |
I'm not sure how much you actually learn from this game that helps you in the real world, but this is a very fun title. Its one of those games that, after you've learned how to play the different puzzles, anyone in the family can do it. We recently had this game on a family holiday and found that it was a fun way to foster friendly competition.
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