Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree Review

By Mathew Kumar Published 20 June, 2007

Wouldn't graduate with a third from a polytechnic.

Version tested: Wii

Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree is a difficult sort of title for a video game reviewer to approach. Okay, sure, it has many of the trappings of a traditional video game; medals for playing well, a multiplayer mode, it comes in a box on a disc that you put into a console, that sort of thing. But as part of Nintendo's "Touch Generations" line-up, it's probably as uncomfortable with me using the term "game" to describe it as I am. The difference is, of course, is that Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree probably thinks of itself as "lifestyle software," I think of it as the digital equivalent of a dog-eared primary school maths book.

Now, that might sound like an overly harsh appraisal, but look at it this way. You could probably have just as much fun with a maths or a basic IQ test book. The tasks are roughly as hard, you can give yourself especially big ticks when you get questions right and you can even "go multiplayer" by seeing who can answer a page of questions fastest and get the most answers right. What's so different, really?

You see, Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree, a sequel of sorts to Big Brain Academy for Nintendo DS (which we gave a reservedly above-average review last year) joins its predecessor by lacking many of the crucial hooks that made Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day! such a resounding success and so distinctly different from your average school test.

'Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree' Screenshot 1

Multiplayer mode Mind Sprint. Little more than a race to the finish, but the most interesting multiplayer game by far.

The first big problem with Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree, and arguably the most important, is that there is a lack of a meaningful goal. Whereas Brain Age gave you a nice obvious target to shoot for (a brain that's so sprightly and youthful it could be mistaken for a 20 year-old's) The Big Brain Academy titles ask you to "raise your brain's weight." Patently a load of old nonsense.

I can imagine, after weeks of working on my Brain Age, my synapses and neurons being so synappy and neuronic that they look years younger than my decrepit 26 year-old noggin's should. What I can't imagine is that I'm suddenly lugging around over three kilograms of brain when just last week it weighed a third of that.

But it's not just the message, but the delivery. While Brain Training had only nine games to play, most were a rounded challenge that you could spend quite a while mastering. In contrast, Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree, like its Nintendo DS sibling, offers fifteen simplistic mini-games in five categories: Identify, Memorise, Analyse, Compute and Visualise. When taking a test, you're expected to complete the three games in each category numerous times in a random order of difficulty.

Due to the speed in which you're expected to complete the games, it actually feels a bit like a Wario Ware title; albeit one with a limited range of games and a genuine lack of character.

'Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree' Screenshot 2

Which of these has eight legs? Yes, this is an example of a 'challenging' question in Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree. Speed seems to have the greatest effect on Brain weight, the questions are so simple.

While oddball Professor Kawashima managed to make the concept of lowering your brain age a short, fun, daily activity, the nameless jelly bean tutor of Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree has almost nothing to say for himself, and pays no attention to the player's daily performance as the game lacks any calendar function.

The fifteen games on offer are all new, but they're not distinct or individually interesting enough to make the title particularly valuable if you've already got the Nintendo DS title. Indeed, the title falls into all of the same traps that the original did. You can rush through the practice mode and get gold medals on each game within a couple of hours. You can test your brain's weight as many times as you like. There are no interesting comparison graphs or ways to observe yours (or a friend's) progress.

Once you've maxed out your brain's weight, there's simply no reason to keep playing. We tried, we really did, but to be honest, we gave up on trying to play the game in small, daily chunks as we just got bored of walking all the way over to our TV to swap the disc in if we were busy playing something else, a problem we couldn't have with the Nintendo DS title, living, as it does, snugly in a case with our Nintendo DS.

'Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree' Screenshot 3

Miis, milling around in the academy. This is all that they do. You can click on them for a reaction, but it's not exactly Super Mario 64's title screen, or anything.

The things which are supposed to really differ the title from its Nintendo DS predecessor also fall somewhat short of the mark. While (yes!) your Miis are used in game, they add nothing of substance, only cluttering the halls of the "Academy" and adorning the cover of your student records.

The new multiplayer section, too, adds little. With only three different multiplayer games on offer and only one, Mind Sprint, offering simultaneous play (for only two players at a time) it's at best a momentary distraction.

The title does use the Wii's WiiConnect24 functionality in an interesting way. Much like the Mii channel, which allows you to set your Miis to roam to your friend's systems, you can set your student records to be painlessly transferred to any of your friends who happen to own Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree. The most excellent thing of all? You don't need to enter a second friend code to do it.

'Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree' Screenshot 4

We admit that you could play this with your granny, though. But she'd probably just moan at you to put Wii Sports back in, really.

Of course, there isn't a huge amount of reason to share your student records, but you can at least use traded student records play against an A.I. version of your friends in Mind Sprint. The closest comparison I can think of is (surprisingly) Virtua Fighter's system of A.I. opponents, but (unsurprisingly) the battles you'll have in Mind Sprint don't have any of a Virtua Fighter title's depth.

This lack of depth is endemic in Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree. We'll only agree with it that it's a piece of "lifestyle software" if that term specifically means something utterly forgettable that's over and done with in a few hours.

At best, this might have been a cute piece of original downloadable content on a system that sorely needs some. As a full price piece of software, it's genuinely worth less than forty quid's worth of dog-eared primary school maths books.

5 / 10

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About Mathew Kumar

Read more articles from Mathew by visiting the Mathew Kumar archive page.

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Comments (78) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Dizzy #1 5 years ago

    Oh my...

  • lennon #2 5 years ago

    "We admit that you could play this with your granny, though. But she'd probably just moan at you to put Wii Sports back in, really."

    Yup!

  • souljacker2000 #3 5 years ago

    OMG another shit wii game

  • Hunam #4 5 years ago

    Can i put this degree on my CV?

  • NewYork #5 5 years ago

    I prefer my brain training games reviewed by Oxford graduates.

  • Bleedingplums #6 5 years ago

    Surprisingly generous mark after such a scathing review.

  • kissthestick #7 5 years ago

    oh boy..

  • Darren #8 5 years ago

    Crikey... not good then... no doubt this is the sort of thing that will shift millions of extra Wiis in Japan though...

  • oerhoert #9 5 years ago

    It sounds like a 1/10 or a 2/10, yet yet again EG is content with handing out a 5.

    Seems to me the scoring system isn't actually utilized that well?

  • AcidSnake #10 5 years ago

    They should package it with a wiimote...That would help its sales through the roof...

    I can only hope the designers of this game weren't pulled off of the production of any of the big games...

  • StarchildHypocrethes #11 5 years ago

    Time for another 46 page thread discussing whether the reviewer was right or not methinks...

  • smoothpete #12 5 years ago

    What the eff is going on these days? I don't want my effing brain trained for eff's sake. MAKE SOME PROPER GAMES YOU MONKEYS

  • DrDamn #13 5 years ago

    Dunno about reviewer right or not - it's been fairly universally panned hasn't it (*)

    (*) based on hearsay and gossip - but I think this is the case.

  • krudster #14 5 years ago

    To be fair, the game isn't markedly different from the DS version we gave 7 to, so dishing out a 3 wouldn't make sense at all.

    What makes it worse is that it's simply works better on DS (more suited to bite-sized play), not to mention it's more expensive for no good reason other than it's on Wii. Failing to recognise how valuable the calendar comparison is makes it even more galling. There's precious little incentive to keep playing after you've 'cracked' each task.

  • rudedudejude #15 5 years ago

    I hope your reviewer didnt mark it down for bad controls this time!

  • ForbiddenForest #16 5 years ago

    Come back Manhunt - all is forgiven...

  • Carrybagma #17 5 years ago

    I predict this crap will get more TV coverage than anything else since Wii Sports.

    I can't wait to see who adds this to their 'most wanted' list.

  • morriss #18 5 years ago

    oh dear

  • Obsequious #19 5 years ago

    Seriously, out of all the relevant consoles of the past fifteen years or so, has any of them had as poor a first year as the Wii's had thus far?

    It's been a fuckin' trainwreck of poorly implemented waggle and 2001-era visuals. No exclusive killer-apps, nothing but the faint promise of Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime deigning to grace us with their presence sometime within the next twelve months.

    Why are people still buying this piece of shit?

  • dirigiblebill #20 5 years ago

    In there with the incendiary F-bombs as usual, Obsequious.

    Though I do agree there's nothing in the current Wii portfolio which remotely makes me consider buying one.

  • UncleLou #21 5 years ago

    I bought mine specifically to annoy fanboys of other consoles, which works remarkably well.

  • Carrybagma #22 5 years ago

    I bought mine simply so that I could tell the neighbours I had one. I've not actually tried it yet. Whenever they come around to try it, I actually put the Gamecube on and tell them to pretend the Wavebirds are tennis rackets.

  • miiiguel #23 5 years ago

    /finds weird why the reviwer is not beeing gang-raped for scoring a Wii game less than 27 out of 10/

    It's a mad world...
    Edited by 1 at 20/06/07 @ 15:17

  • dirigiblebill #24 5 years ago

    If I buy one it'll be because I've accidentally wondered into the Entertainment section whilst looking for a toaster.

  • ST.. #25 5 years ago

    I bought my Wii purely to make Space Marines cry.

  • SBfistfun #26 5 years ago

    3/10

    Nintendo your grades are getting steadily worse, I dread to think where you'll be next year if keep this up.

  • Hughes. #27 5 years ago

    It seems the sort of quirky stuff that saved the DS' bacon after its dodgy first year is not transferring successfully to the Wii. I have a friend who is still desperate to get a Wii, even though he couldn't name a single game that's out on it.

    I fully expect to buy it off him for a pittance in a year or so, after he's dug it out from behind his TV cabinet and blown a mountain of dust off it. Just like he did when he sold me the GameCube he was desperate to have and consequently only played for the first 2 months of the 2 years he owned it.

  • woodnotes #28 5 years ago

    I hate these shitty cheap ass games.

  • AcidSnake #29 5 years ago

    If I buy one it'll be because I've accidentally wondered into the Entertainment section whilst looking for a toaster.

    Imagine what would happen if you went to look for a toaster, a barbecue and a nuclear reactor...
    :)

  • Saladin #30 5 years ago

    "3/10

    Nintendo your grades are getting steadily worse, I dread to think where you'll be next year if keep this up."

    They'll be exactly where they are this year - on top, and laughing.

    Nintendo have finally achieved every game company's dream: to tap into and exploit the huge casual/non-gamer market. They'll keep on cranking out crap like this so long as the great unwashed continue to pay for it.

  • Schiraman #31 5 years ago

    Have to agree with those that say the rating doesn't seem to match the overall tone of the review - especially the last bit: "it's genuinely worth less than forty quid's worth of dog-eared primary school maths books". So basically EG would give forty quid's worth of dog-eared primary school maths books a 6/10 or better? ;)

    It's not surprising though, honestly these days I'm only surprised by EG scores when they *do* agree with the review text... :)

  • miiiguel #32 5 years ago

    ok, ok we're getting there. A bit slower that usual, but the reviwer WILL be impaled.

  • Darren #33 5 years ago

    @Obsequious - To be fair, the Wii has had some good games, it's just that they're few and far between plus easy to miss amidst all the third-party dross that publishers seem content to churn out for the machine. There was WarioWare Smooth Smooths, Sonic and the Secret Rings, Tiger Woods 2007, SSX Blur and... ummm... loads more like like... erm... oh, yeah, Mercury Meltdown Revolution, which is pretty fantastic really.

    It's just a shame that Nintendo's commitment to the machine seems so lacking as the best games on it seem to be mostly GC cast-offs, e.g. Zelda: Twilight Princess and Resi Evil 4, and there's a serious lack of triple A "killer apps" on the immediate horizon bar Super Paper Mario, which is, again, another ex-GC title!!!

  • MoGamer2006 #34 5 years ago

    Woooh, feel the hate in some of these comments!!! The Wii's success must really be eating some of you guys up!

  • MGG #35 5 years ago

    "Wouldn't graduate with a third from a polytechnic."

    I did.

    :p

  • ryohazuki1983 #36 5 years ago

    Least we got the following to look forward 2 this year (hopefully)....missing some out no doubt.

    super paper mario
    mario galaxy
    no more heroes
    trauma center
    nights
    RE4
    umbrella chronicles
    metroid
    Manhunt 2

    mario strikers keeping me busy at the mo, online and off.

  • SeesThroughAll #37 5 years ago

    Woooh, feel the hate in some of these comments!!! The Wii's success must really be eating some of you guys up!

    "At best, this might have been a cute piece of original downloadable content on a system that sorely needs some. As a full price piece of software, it's genuinely worth less than forty quid's worth of dog-eared primary school maths books.

    5/10"

    Yes, it's just envy.

    Keep telling yourself that.

  • ForbiddenForest #38 5 years ago

    It's clear from this software drought that nintendo rushed out the hardware a tad early to get the machines in place on the back of a genuinely fun new control idea and a rock solid piece of software to show it off - Wii Sports. This also gets the white boxes under the telly before MS and Sony get a head of hardware steam up and copy the control idea - which they are all about to do, obviously, but (again, obviously) with only lame Wario clones to wiggle and waggle at.

    By the by, my missus is a teacher and a recent classroom survey had 25 of her 28 kids already owning/or wanting a Wii. 4 or 5 had/wanted a PS3 or 360. Most of these 9 years olds own DSs while many had also played GTA games which I feel lends some credence to the Manhunt decision - if it is as psycho-inducing as the BBFC claims.

  • Overlush #39 5 years ago

    "We'll only agree with it that it's a piece of "lifestyle software" if that term specifically means something utterly forgettable that's over and done with in a few hours."

    Substitute 'software' for 'hardware'
    Edited by 1 at 20/06/07 @ 16:47

  • Hughes. #40 5 years ago

    A software drought for a Nintendo machine is nothing new, in fact this is a frantic rush of titles compared to the N64 days, with positively anorexic release schedules for first party titles being the norm. Of course back then the games could cost anything up to £70, so people made sure they squeezed as much playtime out of them as they could.

    Anyone early adopting a Nintendo machine and expecting a non-stop flood of 1st party titles must have been asleep for the last 10 years.

  • Pac-man-ate-my-wife #41 5 years ago

    Folks. Every piece of hardware ever has had a drought, not just Nintendo. Look at the first year of the 360. Look at the PS3 now.

  • JediMasterMalik #42 5 years ago

    So is this the first actually crap Nintendo developed game?

  • Pac-man-ate-my-wife #43 5 years ago

    Nope, Wii Play was shit.

  • MoGamer2006 #44 5 years ago

    @ SeeThroughAll

    Huh? Envy? I never said it was envy - though I'm sure Sony and MSoft execs are deeply envious of Nintendo's sales performance right now.

    So, Big Brain Academy got a mediocre score. So what? I didn't like the DS version much either, but that didn't make me write off the DS as a decent games machine.

    I'm just amazed at the hate Nintendo's little box generates. To listen to some on here anybody would think Miyamoto had broken into their house and shat in their mouth while they were asleep.

    Edited by 1 at 20/06/07 @ 17:38

  • NoCodeNed2 #45 5 years ago

    I wondered what that funny taste in my mouth was this morning.

  • The-Bodybuilder #46 5 years ago

    >"We'll only agree with it that it's a piece of "lifestyle software."

    That's because the wii is supposed to be a "lifestyle console".

    And as I thought, ninty thought they could transfer the DS's successes into the wii, just as how sony thought they could transfer thier playstation successses into the handheld.

    But they are both different markets.

  • The-Bodybuilder #47 5 years ago

    >"Seems to me the scoring system isn't actually utilized that well? "

    Does it really matter though?
    Anyone can tell that the game is pants.

  • The-Bodybuilder #48 5 years ago

    >"Nintendo Wii has a killer-app - Twilight Princess."

    The Gamecube title?

  • quantumsheep #49 5 years ago

    I'd love to see the sales figures on this actually, you know, how well it does, just to see if there's really a market for this on the Wii.

    I'm not buying it, mind ;)

  • bit_mite #50 5 years ago

    "Nintendo Wii has a killer-app - Twilight Princess. I'm sure many will agree that TP and Oblivion are the best games this generation - and that's a great achievement by both developers."

    I'm no rabid Oblivion hater, but I really can't agree that it was anything more than quite good, in retrospect.

  • secombe #51 5 years ago

    Drought?

    Since launch the following have been perfectly playable, not to mention darn good fun...

    Wii Sports
    Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
    Excite Truck
    Mercury Meltdown Revolution

    and not to mention Madden NFL which was massively dismissed but is actually superb fun, even if like me you've never shown any interest in American Football. Put simply there has been a game a month I've wanted to play and have spent plenty of time on, more than enough for a 'normal' person with a job /family/partner/kids etc.

    The above have supplied more than enough hours to keep me busy since December, not including the unbelievable amount of hours spent playing Wii Play and Wii Sports with family and friends. Then there are plenty of borderline candidates, Eledees, Sonic, Wario Ware, SSX, Rayman, Monkey Ball etc.

    People here seem to buy the Wii hoping it will be a solid single-player experience for hours and hours everyday. In my opinion it just doesn't work like that, it's great for an hour or two here and there and better than anything when you have at least one other person around. But for the so-called 'hardcore' gamers you need a 360 or PS3 to compliment it.
    Edited by 1 at 20/06/07 @ 19:14

  • smelly #52 5 years ago

    There's 54 posts in this thread. I can see 41 of them.

    So I take it the usual 360 trolls are out in force?

  • SeesThroughAll #53 5 years ago

    Heck, smelly, do you have so many people in your ignore list?

  • EmiliasHorse #54 5 years ago

    This game does not need 360 trolls to slag it off. The reviewer did a fine job on his own.

  • smelly #55 5 years ago

    >Heck, smelly, do you have so many people in your ignore list?

    Must do. I've ignored blatent trolls so i dont bother wasting my breath replying to them

    >This game does not need 360 trolls to slag it off

    Yeah, yer right. But it wont stop them all coming in here and saying "haha the wii is poo" or something. The fact that i cant see a lot of posts tells me there's a hell of a lot of the usual 360 owners on this thread saying "har har the wii is crap" - or telling us about how they're about to sell their wii or something equally lame.

    Besides, this "game" isnt for the likes of you or me. Its for the "non gamers" (And man do i hate that phrase).

  • BartonFink #56 5 years ago

    Poor smelly

  • Bill_Gates_Bitch #57 5 years ago

    "Besides, this "game" isnt for the likes of you or me. Its for the "non gamers" (And man do i hate that phrase). "

    Thats the wii's biggest audience.

  • EmiliasHorse #58 5 years ago

    And therefore this game will sell shed loads.

    I fear games like this. They are dumbing down games BUT claiming they are expanding our minds. Sinister.

  • smelly #59 5 years ago

    >I fear games like this.

    I dont, i embrace them. Everthing has it's place. Just like there is room for generic mainstream pop music or crap films - there's a place for mainstream 'games' like this.

    People who are introduced to gaming via games like this will become "proper" gamers in years to come.

    By increasing the size of the audience and getting more people playing we'll eventually get more variety in the people who make games (and not just hardcore gamer nerds) and subsequently more interesting and varied games.. May take a few years/decades though.

    - So I think this is the beginning of something great, and not something to be feared. In fact im more fearful of something like the above NOT happening as i dont want to be playing more and more endlessly boring shooting/racing games (but with prettier pixels) in years to come.

  • BartonFink #60 5 years ago

    So the message to developers out there is make more shite and they will come?

  • EmiliasHorse #61 5 years ago

    @smelly
    I was with you until the last paragraph. I DO want to play prettier shooting and racing games in the next decades. I do not want to stop using my dual analogue controller and I do not want to play "sums" ever.

  • smelly #62 5 years ago

    >I DO want to play prettier shooting and racing games in the next decades.

    Really? You dont think you'd get bored? I have. Just like i got bored of playing generic 2d platformers in the original nintendo/sega era.


    >I do not want to stop using my dual analogue controller

    did i say you should?

    >and I do not want to play "sums" ever.

    did i say you should?


    I didnt say i want all future games to be like this. I said i want future games to be a bit more inventive than just the same games with prettier pixels. And the more people we get into gaming (Through stuff like this) the more chance there is of that happening.
    Edited by 1 at 20/06/07 @ 21:13

  • smelly #63 5 years ago

    To put it another way. Years back i convinced my folks to buy me a sinclair spectrum, as it'd be educational.

    They bought me one, complete with some math games, etc etc.

    Of course i never actually used it once as an educational tool - just totally for playing games.

    But games like this give new gamers the same excuse as i had when i was younger for why it was GOOD to have a games machine.

    "Look mom, if you get me a wii and this brain game - i might learn something and be good at school.. Oh and while yer at the shops, can you buy me scarface, resident evil, mario strikers and smash bros for it as well?"

  • Sid-Nice #64 5 years ago

    I'd love to see the sales figures on this actually, you know, how well it does, just to see if there's really a market for this on the Wii.

    180,684 units sold in 7 weeks in Japan; Nintendo want to stop making DS games for the Wii.

  • The-Bodybuilder #65 5 years ago

    >"Poor smelly"

    LOL.
    We're all 360 fanboys.....apparently.

  • quantumsheep #66 5 years ago

    Cheers Sid, that's interesting. Wonder if it'll do as badly over here?

    I can't agree with your blanket statement. After all, the Trauma Centre 'port' looks like it's made the transition from DS to Wii with aplomb.

    Though that may be the exception that proves the rule ;)

  • killest #67 5 years ago

    "Wouldn't graduate with a third from a polytechnic."

    5/10?

    if you got 5/10 (50%) in a university you'd get a 2:2!!!!

    somebody contact the authorities!!!!!!!!

  • Dr.Gash #68 5 years ago

    I am so getting this game.

  • Dermoth #69 5 years ago

    "The first big problem with Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree, and arguably the most important, is that there is a lack of a meaningful goal. Whereas Brain Age gave you a nice obvious target to shoot for (a brain that's so sprightly and youthful it could be mistaken for a 20 year-old's) The Big Brain Academy titles ask you to "raise your brain's weight." Patently a load of old nonsense."

    They're called "high scores". I got about six months of play out of the DS game, bettering my high scores. This was mainly down to the random way your tests are selected, which is a cheap way to extend the game's longevity, but it worked for me. I mainly played it in the bath, though, which isn't a great venue for Wii games. So is it worth me getting this?

    I haven't a clue.

    Fair enough, you don't like the game, But you've provided absolutely feck all information for people who DID like the DS version. Are any of the 15 minigames fun? Which ones suck? Any chance of even a brief description of how it works, whether the Wiimote is accurate...

    This review is a total waste of time. It's a review written for people who didn't like the original, WHICH MEANS THEY WOULDN'T HAVE BOUGHT IT ANYWAY. Great.

  • cawley1 #70 5 years ago

    Anyone on here actually played it? I have and it is not a bad game at all, certainly deserves more than a five.

    My missus would not get off the bloody thing the other night, so I guess you can stick it down to that casual gamer thing again - I personally have found it a decent distraction between Paper Mario and my hectic work schedule.

    Try it, before slagging it...

  • smelly #71 5 years ago

    >Anyone on here actually played it

    Well there's 74 posts and i can see 60 of them .. So i presume most of the people slagging it off are the usual fangirls who troll every wii thread.

    Subsequently i can gaurantee they havent played it.. and i can pretty much gaurantee most of them dont even own a wii.

  • SmileyDudette #72 5 years ago

    "We admit that you could play this with your granny, though. But she'd probably just moan at you to put Wii Sports back in, really."
    ROFLMAO, then making a mess in my panties.

    "... digital equivalent of dog eard primary school maths book..."
    /shudders
    /does a wet one
    /logs off to change pants
    Edited by 1 at 22/06/07 @ 22:03

  • kinggid #73 5 years ago

    I hear the RRP for BBA is now only £19.99

    Does this affect the score do you think?

  • v3rtigo #74 5 years ago

    Just been playing this and dropped in to re-read the review here.
    I think it's pretty excellent for what it is really, definately better than the review here suggests. It's a typically polished and supernaturally accessible Nintendo Wii game.
    I had to tear myself away from obsessive medal collecting. Sure, it's probably not got much longevity to it, but for a family it will have a great competitive streak to it.
    I got it for £17.99 from Gameplay. I was really hoping that Nintendo would carry over the cheaper pricing of it's Brain Training games from the DS. Seems like they have - now if only more Wii games could have some sensible pricing...

  • BraveArse #75 5 years ago

    +1

    couldnt agree more. The RRP is 1/2 that mooted in the review, and it's dip in and play appeal works absolutely fine on the Wii imo. It's a good family game.
    Edited by 1 at 22/07/07 @ 13:32

  • Darren #76 5 years ago

    I've just ordered the game from Gameplay.com for £18. I don't own a DS and at that price I thought the game was worth a look.

  • hokuto_no_rob #77 5 years ago

    7/10 on Eurogamer.de

  • kinggid #78 5 years ago

    It's a great game. If you liked BBA for the DS, this is similar but with much, much better multiplayer. Don't be put off by the 5/10 review - I'd say 8/10.

  • pink_dolphin #79 5 years ago

    I agree with cawley1, All the reviews put me off buying it, I wish places like IGN and Gamespot would stop being so negative against the wii, I've been playing games for 16 years, the early computer gmaes were about things like noughts and crosses, there was even a time when platforming games ruled and a time when space shoot em ups did, then one day GTA3 came along this changed much about gaming many games were trying to be like it, it became the most popular type of game (I'm not slagging of the game it's a good game just not my type, the thing I don't like it how alot of GTA3 (in particular the teenage ones) players moan about brain training games and the whole "how their not a game thing" and it changing the industry (hyprocrites). I never moaned at GTA and never siad it was bad I just don't play it, I seek gaming diversity and I think it's good that what's popular is always changing.

    Anyway I bought this game becuse a friend recommended it and it's good fun, I don't think the reviewer got platinum medals or scores higher than 4 or 5 hundred, that where the longetivity comes in trying to beat yours and your friend's scores, also some of the puzzles are quite challenging like the bird cage one on hard (by the way expert can be unlocked). There's like 8 cages and e.g 4 with birds in and they move round really fast and you have to keep track of them. It's also good to see the mii's in the corridor, and they do play a part since your mii is you and you use your picture for your scores. and the jelly bean thing (or whatever it is) is cute unlike mr kojuka (Japanese guy from braintraining, no offence to him, I'm not calling him ugly just not cute like a kitten). and instead of getting younger your brain gets heavier it's similar it's just the other way round, and the pentagram graph is more informative, in some ways I would say it's better than brain training like the music and the controls like in brain training you can shout blue and it thinks your saying black that makes me mad, where as in this you only have your self to blame when you mess up like clicking the wrong answer with the remote (it dosn't make it any less annoying though). The multiplayers great fun too especially the mind quiz board the game where the wii mote rings like a phone and a customser shoots orders though the wii mote at you like 4 egg freid rice, 1 pizza, 2 chicken wings, 4 pitta bread and 2 garlic bread and you have to remember it all including quantitys is rather fun, everyone I know who has played this game likes it.


    It's Good light hearted fun and a bargain for £19.99 also it was hard to get the other week, shops like Game were like "oh we wasn't especting it to sell so much", I wish people who don't like this type game would not slag it off without playing it first. I didn't think I would like it (I always saw the ds version as a copy of Brain training so I never played it, but on the wii Big brain academy beat brain training to it). Also someone I know who does actually own the DS version prefers the wii version. Also I wish more people who like the wii would review wii games or at least reviewers should review a game for it's intended audence, it's like giving a Grand turismo game on the playstation a 1 out of 10 because the reviewer doesn't like racing games or the playstation, although I like the wii and this game I don't think it's flawless like online actual head head to v.s would be cool, and maybe some more puzzles but whats there is fun IMO, I would give it 7,5 out of 10.
    Edited by 2 at 13/08/07 @ 18:30