Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree
This rethinking of the popular Nintendo DS game will test players brains with fun problems and allow people of any age to play together. The Wii Remote controller’s hands-on control makes playing a cinch. Multiplayer versus and co-op play modes also have been added, allowing players to use the title as a brain-training exercise or a raucous party game. In split screen two-player versus mode, the same puzzle problems will appear in a different order — The first player to get 12 correct answers wins.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.
User Ratings and Reviews
3 Stars Chipiparuba
Its a fine game. The mini games are very basic–matching, memorizing, identifying, etc.–and the difficulty is changed by differing the number of objects and the speed of the game. The graphics are old school, But entertaining.
I have two complaints though:
1- The game is not intuitive. Rankings and the difficulty of the games don’t consider the abilities of the person playing. When you create a profile it has you take a test. It would have been better if this set the difficulty level for that player, instead it simply rates them. My five year old has his scores compared beside my twelve year old’s scores, and quite often gets discouraged. When we play the group games the difficulty is random–luck of the draw–one person may get an easy level game and the next might get an expert level game. All the more frustrating for little kids when big brother breezes through memorizing the order of three basic shapes, and they get stuck trying keep track of 50 red and blue balls launched at a basket in six seconds and then get asked if more red or blue balls actually ended up in the basket. Even though I found his expression very comical it was obvious that the little one failed to see any humor in it.
2- The little professor guy is annoying! He says WAY too much. I don’t buy games so I can read bubble after bubble of dumb humor. Open mike night at the old folk’s home is more entertaining.
Summary:
As an adult game-
Challenging? Yes if you stick with the hard and expert levels (which you can’t choose in group play)
Entertaining? NO.
As a Family game-
No. The playing field is to even to have players of different skills compete.
As a child’s single player brain teaser-
Yes
Value- three stars
5 Stars Great game.. highly recommend.
Got this game as a birthday gift for my kid and she absolutely loves it. Since it has different levels, it can cater to various skill levels. They have made it interesting to sustain the interest level for the kids.
5 Stars It is awesome game
My 6 year olds just love this game. Plus I love it cause it is fun playing this game with them. It is excellent for all ages. It is gives kids a lot of incentives to do well as they give medals in practice session. The kids seem to pick games they are not so good at to practice.
5 Stars This is a great, stimulating game.
My husband and I first played this at my parent’s house and decided to buy it because we had so much fun. As a psychology student, I have become familiar with psychological and intelligence testing and this game actually incorporates some of those principles. My only quip with this game is that the little guy looks like a booger. You can skip part of his review lecture thing which is nice after the 50th time. This game is great for young and old.
3 Stars OK game - but gets boring soon
My kids played this for some time - but they seem to have got tired of playing this. I have to remind them to play once in a while - while they really pester me to play other games like the lego star wars or lego indiana jones. The games do seem to be targeted to areas of brain development, but it is just not presented in a fun way.
Filed under: Nintendo Wii Games Reviews