Nintendo has released “Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree“ also known as “Big Brain Academy for Wii” worldwide, it brings the return of the DS’s educational puzzle game, except this time expanded to the Wii.
Educational puzzle game? That’s right, and a fun one at that thanks to the multiplayer modes making it a party game. In the game you use your brain to effectively answer questions correctly alone, or in competitions against others, to increase your brain weight.
Nintendo is really on to something with this Touch Generation line of casual games, that this Brain Age-spinoff is part of, these games are meant for every generation and drove sales of this latest game to 1.38 million copies worldwide about four months after its release on Wii. Time to find out if you’re part of its target audience.
System: Wii
Genre: Puzzle/Trivia, Educational
Release dates: April 26th 2007 (JPN), June 11th 2007 (USA), July 20th 2007 (EURO), November 8th 2007 (AUS)
Players: 1-8
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Origin: Japan
When you start a new game, you’ll meet Dr. Lobe who’ll want you to take a Test mode challenge: playing all 15 activities that span the game’s five categories (Identify, Memorize, Analyze, Compute, and Visualize). He’ll tell players how big their brain is based on how well they did and how fast they did it. Thanks to me playing the previous game I scored as high on my first try as most do after a week, or so he told me. He’ll encourage you to take Tests often and to use Practice mode to improve your skills in all 15 of the activities. As well as telling you which you need to improve, which you can check yourself in the easy to follow graphs. Practice mode also offers three difficulty levels (Easy, Medium, and Hard) for each activity, and Dr. Lobe will award several medals for high achievement in each one. Hey it’s an academy, so that’s the goal.
Meanwhile, the Mii’s you created on your Wii will be walking the academy hallways chatting to each other in a great new cel-shaded look.
The Wii sequel to Big Brain Academy for DS includes three multiplayer modes for up to eight players. You can also exchange Student Record Books with other Friend list buddies via WiiConnect24 and compete against their Mind Sprint save data, it’s no online multiplayer but it still works. As if it weren’t obvious, instead of the DS stylus and microphone, you’ll be using the Wii Remote’s pointer and that big A button to play. Players can play solo with one Wii Remote, or pass it around like a relay baton in 2-8 player group competitions as well as 2-player split-screen head-to-head.
Watch the Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree trailer.
Let’s break down the game’s 15 minigames within Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree into five categories.
The five categories are:
* Identify (Visual-themed questions) includes games like Whack Match, Fast Focus, and Species Spotlight;
* Memorize (Memory-themed questions) includes games like Covered Cages, Face Case, and Reverse Retention;
* Analyze (Reason-based questions) includes games like Match Blast, Speed Sorting, and Block Spot;
* Compute (Math-themed questions) includes games like Balloon Burst, Mallet Match, and Colour Count;
* Visualize (Logic-themed questions) includes games like Art Parts, Train Turn, and Odd One out.
The two single player modes are:
Test: In this mode, the player is challenged with each of the 5 categories in random order. There are 12 questions per category (4 for each minigame), resulting in 60 questions in total. The player is scored based on speed and accuracy; the faster one answers a question, the more grams they earn (which represents their score), but an incorrect answer scores no grams. The difficulty of the questions adjusts based on the player’s score.
Practice: Each minigame can be played separately, and depending on the results, the player can be awarded with a medal, according to their score. There are four levels of difficulty: Easy, Medium, Hard and Expert, which is locked until gold/platinum medals are acquired on all of the previous three.
The three multiplayer modes are:
Mind Sprint: Mind Sprint allows two players to go head-to-head in a split-screened race, or up to eight players can play as two teams. If a player answers incorrectly, they are stopped for about a second and have to answer the same question. One player or team can compete against player records (a computer opponent with skills based on that player’s best test performance).
Mental Marathon: A team works together (or an individual works alone) to score as many points as possible within a time limit. Extra time is rewarded after each question, based on the length of the next question; less time is awarded as the game goes on. One mistake ends the game.
Brain Quiz: Players take turns choosing from a selection of 12 categories. Each category has a difficulty attached to it, though this is hidden until the category is selected. During their turn, players must try to answer as many questions as possible within the time limit, but one wrong answer will end the turn. This mode is notable for having 5 extra games, one from each category, that don’t appear elsewhere in the game.
Quick and clever quizzes head-to-head gameplay.
In conclusion I’d like to point out that while the move from portable game to console naturally limits the freedom, the focus on multiplayer makes the transition a successful one. A weakness in the game is that during this transition the makers forgot the Wii Remote has a motion sensor in it, while it was clever to let certain quizzes talk from the Wii Remote speaker, the minigames all come down to pointing and clicking. The difficulty and thus longevity of the total package could’ve been seriously upgraded with many more games if motion sensitivity was used to create real mind benders. Basically, it lacks variety.
But otherwise there’s really nothing to complain about when I can get my casual gamer friends and non-gamer parents to once again try this out and like it — that’s the fourth time now — so overall it’s a good game to get some competition going if you have other people to play with. So how much fun is Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree on a scale from 1 to 10?
FUN FACTOR – 7.5
Different quizzes, different difficulties, and new multiplayer modes, make this a fun game you can play for a few minutes at a time — several times a day — for weeks. Points were deducted because the three similar brain training games released on DS cost a low-budget $20 each, whereas the Wii game costs full-price $50, which is too expensive for a title you will have seen every game from in over half an hour. What ultimately makes or breaks this game for anyone is if you mind it’s another minigames collection.
Graphics – 7.5
The in-game graphics are simple and clean, but that’s logical for the quiz tasks. A very charming look.
Audio – 7.5
Cheerful background tunes. The (fe)male voice commentary from your Wii controller’s Remote Coach is both fun and helpful! When my batteries were low it told me “I’m a little tired!” so if you want to save your batteries I’d change the Wii Remote volume or turn it all the way down after pressing the HOME button. Minimal sound effects, but that’s ok for the puzzle tasks. No in-game sound controls though.
Ingenuity – 7.0
The ease of use make math, puzzles and brainteasers fun. The package is well put together, as you’ll want to do better each time. The easy-does-it point-and-click Wii Remote controls work, but by not using motion-controls feels like a cop out.
Replay Value – 7.5
It’s an entertaining game you’ll want to get back to for a few weeks with family and friend and after that when people are visiting from time to time. But like any game, once you hit the highscore, you’ll lose most of the incentive to go back if it weren’t for the multiplayer. I hate to point out a theoretical flaw in the system used to determine highscores, but the brain of the great physicist Albert Einstein weighed 1,230 grams. This is far below the average human brain weight of 1,400 grams, so make of that what you will.