Play & Compete » Wii » Reviews » Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree
Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree
Amazon Price: $29.99
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Release Date: June 12, 2007
ESRB: Everyone
Publisher: Nintendo
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Release Date: June 12, 2007
ESRB: Everyone
Publisher: Nintendo
User Rating:
(270 Ratings)
Amazon Customer Rating:
(67 Ratings)
User Status: 83 currently playing of 410 owning the game
Amazon Customer Rating:
User Status: 83 currently playing of 410 owning the game
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Brain Age and Big Brain titles have combined sold more than one-hundred ga-trillion copies on the company's dual-screened handheld. All right, a slight exaggeration, but these games were unpredictable hits, appealing to all types of buyers with mental challenges that could only loosely be described as gameplay by traditional standards. And unlike so many of the graphical powerhouses that are here Monday and gone Tuesday, these simple brain puzzles -- designed to "expand the audience," says the Big N whenever it possibly can -- have legs. Their appeal doesn't thin and disappear with age because, like Tetris, their mechanics are timeless, and as a result you may still find a DS brain game in the Top 25 best-sellers list a year after its release. Not bad for a series of projects inspired by someone at Nintendo who didn't technically work in development; he merely suggested that the publisher create something that would hold the attention of adults. Somebody give that man a raise.
Nintendo's Brain Age and Big Brain titles have combined sold more than one-hundred ga-trillion copies on the company's dual-screened handheld. All right, a slight exaggeration, but these games were unpredictable hits, appealing to all types of buyers with mental challenges that could only loosely be described as gameplay by traditional standards. And unlike so many of the graphical powerhouses that are here Monday and gone Tuesday, these simple brain puzzles -- designed to "expand the audience," says the Big N whenever it possibly can -- have legs. Their appeal doesn't thin and disappear with age because, like Tetris, their mechanics are timeless, and as a result you may still find a DS brain game in the Top 25 best-sellers list a year after its release. Not bad for a series of projects inspired by someone at Nintendo who didn't technically work in development; he merely suggested that the publisher create something that would hold the attention of adults. Somebody give that man a raise.
The unique make-up of the DS has helped foster efforts like these. Whether you're using the stylus to simmer some food in Cooking Mama, sewing up a patient in Trauma Center, washing off your puppy in Nintendogs or frantically solving math problems in a brain game, these genre-breaking undertakings have succeeded partly because they are easy to understand and even easier to control. But what works for DS may not always translate to Wii. Trauma Center made the transition to home console with few hitches, but the same could not be said of the sloppier-controlled Cooking Mama, whose utilization of Nintendo's innovative remote felt uninspired, if not forced. Let's face reality: there are certain games that are just more suitable for a handheld, right? At first glance, Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree -- a console-ified take on the DS title of the same name -- seems like a gimmick. If you're a cynic, you'd call it a cash-in, which may not be that far off the mark. It's not as though the game really branches out from its DS predecessor, after all. You enroll in the Big Brain Academy, a virtual college complete with a very basic graphical hallway and doorways that lead to a series of challenges designed to really put your mind to the test. And if you played any of the brain titles on Nintendo's handheld, you will notice immediately a very similar presentation, not to mention puzzles and mind twisters that seem familiar in some fashion.
But Wii Degree is also unmistakably redesigned for the Big N's home system and in contrast to a game like Cooking Mama, using the Wii remote to solve the puzzles never feels awkward or clunky. Rather, it feels great -- it's incredibly tactile and responsive. In addition, Big Brain on Wii comes complete with some very engaging mental challenges (many of them completely original) and a highly enjoyable multiplayer mode -- arguably one of Wii's best, particularly if you want a Wii Sports-like experience. It only takes a few minutes with the project to discover that it's not just the DS game with a new cover, but a smart console interpretation of a winning handheld phenomenon.
Wii Degree's interface -- we're referring to everything from the design of the college to the menus -- is intentionally designed to be ridiculously simple. You won't be booting the game up to show off its graphic prowess -- there are, frankly, very few visual accomplishments to speak of here. The main hallway of the Big Brain Academy looks like something out of an Internet Flash game -- in other words, basic to the point of being archaic. It's a strange thing to note, then, that it doesn't qualify as poor and it certainly doesn't offend. In fact, it looks very colorful and clean in the same way that Wii Sports does. The game automatically pulls your system's Mii characters and you will see them walking around the hallway in the foreground, which adds a welcomed touch of personality. As an aside, Wii Degree is compatible with WiiConnect24 and auto-imports your Wii system friend codes so that you don't have to manually implement dozens of stupid random numbers in order to re-add your buddies -- we love this and hope it's a sign of the future for all Wii titles.
The Wii game features only a disappointing handful of modes and you will inevitably learn that the title is best played with friends. If you've got none, you can still go solo and test your brain on a daily basis, which is still fun, but you'll be missing out on one of the console version's biggest advantages, which is the two-player simultaneous play or up to eight-player trade-off play, both robust and addictive. You'll begin the game with a test, which ranks your brain in five categories, from identify and visualize to compute, memorize and analyze. You're scored an initial brain size for your (hopefully stunning) performance and it's this early ranking that is used as a base for all your follow-up endeavors; the game constantly judges how you've improved over time with easy-to-follow stats. From there, you can wander the very small hallway of the academy, where you can take solo tests or go into group mode to play mind sprint, mental marathon and brain quiz, which are together the meat and potatoes of the effort.
it is a good game with multiplayer on there to
great fun when you are just sate up late at night.
It never was good and never will be........
like most wii games its best with friends...
it fun with friends, its fun with family, it is really a superb choice. the game pin points at your weaker categories which is excellent because theres always room for improvement.
the five categories identify, analyse, compute visualise and memorise are used to improve your' reflexes and thinking. the makers makes it help you and they make in a fun way.
if you have friends who have this game, you can exchange scores and compare brain weight (which is the score measurement).
it fun and competetive. a really great game.
It's very addictive, there is lots of stuff to do, like collecting medals, and powering up your brain. The multiplayer mode is absolutely gorgeous, but even then only if you have some friends over...
But even if it looks somehow perfect, at some parts its just.. Strange. The graphics look like straight out of a flash-game (I'm not a GFX-*****, but Nintendo, please..) and it even wouldn't be so hard to make such a flash-game. It absolutely also lacks some depth, after you played all the minigames... There's just nothing left to do! Not like Brain Age, where you have daily activities and so on, no! Big Brain Academy also lacks a full statistical view. What's my progress? Where do I suck, where do I have to improve?
Well, it's certainly something you can show to your parents and say "hey look, it's a game even you can play", but after half an hour your dad will scream "gimme back my WiiSports!"...