When Nintendo started its non-game craze last year with Brain Age, I thought it'd be just a fad. I thought Nintendo was just trying out something new but would still focused its efforts on Mario, Samus, Link, Fox, and Captain Falco. After Brain Age's sales went through the roof, I had to accept it: Nintendo likes money and won't let this craze go by without exploiting it.
A quirky title by Nintendo, called Big Brain Academy, came out on the DS a while later. What made it unique was its Wario Ware-like exercises that were over in a few seconds. It also measured your brain weight. It was a critical success.
Now that the Wii is here and that its tagline is practically "Everyone can play!" Big Brain Academy is back to show casual games can hold their own on the Nintendo Wii.
You'll start out by meeting Dr. Lobe, a strange little fellow with glasses (Brain Weight: 1,970 g) that will ask you to enroll. Just choose your Mii, and that's it...you're a student at the Big Brain Academy. After that you're free to do whatever you want, may it be practice your skills on the Solo mode or play with your friends in the Group mode. However, Dr. Lobe asks wants you to take a test, and like the good students we all are, we take it.
Composed of five different categories, the Brain Weight test will take you a while to complete if it's your first time. At the end of it, Dr. Lobe will show up and tell you your Brain Weight (I got 1092 g on my first try). 750 g the first time is average, anything larger than that will get you some love from Dr. Lobe.
The way the mini-games work is really simple. Be it illuminating the dark or memorizing a sequence, all you have to do is point and click. However, this doesn't mean it's easy. There's some games that will put your mind to work. Such is the case in the Pop ballons exercise. You'll need to pop the balloons from lowest to highest but when you're concentrating on speed, you'll make a lot of mistakes. It gets harder when the negative numbers start appearing and gets even harder when the ballons move around and spin. Needless to say, getting a platinum medal (400 g or more) on every exercise and every difficulty won't be an easy task.
Something that Nintendo seems to have succeeded on, is the ease of use with the Wii Remote. Any non-gamer will quickly pick up on how to play and you'll have a blast playing with them. Of course, if you win, they'll usually say it's easier for you because you play Wii all the time.
Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree also saves your records and compares them against anyone else who has played your game. As I've found out with my brother, this is one of the most addictive aspects of Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree. Trying to beat your family/friends will have you playing for hours at a time just to try and beat that high score. Speed and accuracy counts a lot, so even getting beat by one second can make a huge difference in Brain Weight.
There's also the inclusion of a WiiConnect24 feature on Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree. This is the ability to share your records with your Wii Friends. No, it's not actual online play but it's still a nice touch. Oh, and don't worry about getting any Friend Codes. Big Brain Academy: Wii degree automatically imports your Wii system friends so you don't have to bother adding them again. Sadly, this might be only because no online play is involved and the records are actually sent and received through the Wii's Message Board, so don't celebrate the death of Friend Codes just yet.
Graphically, the game is still as quirky as its DS counterpart. Colorful. Looks nice but being on the Wii should've stepped it up a bit even if it is just small things like lighting effects or little tidbits like that. The only step up over the DS version is that the school doesn't look all chunky like it did on the DS.
To make it feel like this should be on Wii only, Nintendo added Wii Remote speaker functionality. This feature, called a remote Coach by Dr. Lobe, is supposed to encourage you to try harder. However, the words are sometimes impossible to understand due to the Wii remote's speaker quality. Aside from that, the Remote Coach only has about 10 lines which get old quickly. It'll end up annoying you soon and you'll be turning off the speaker's volume.
Multiplayer has been added this time and it's a fine addition. There's three modes: Mind Sprint, which will have you and your friends race against each other or team up against your own records; Mental Marathon, and endless mode where you and a friend can play until one messes up; and the last one is Brain Quiz, where you'll pick a tile and then it'll turn around and tell you the mini-game and the difficulty. You'll get one point for every exercise completed and at the end, they'll be summed up. Whoever got the highest score wins.
