Ignition_jammy's Review of Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree

Despite its good premise, there is barely any content here to justify paying more than a few quid.

User Rating: 5 | Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree WII

By Ignition_jammy | Review Date: August 27, 2012

Big Brain Academy is another mini game collection with the focus on logic, counting, recognition to get your brain working hard. You play each game just by pointing and clicking and there is no need for motion control. In Practice and Test mode there are a measly 15 mini games but there are a few extras in the Group mode (2 of the 3 sections can be played single player anyway). In Test mode you play 10 rounds of each category (Compute, Visualise, Identify, Memorise, Analyse) of varying difficulty (easy, medium, hard). In the end, your scores in each section are totalled to give you a grade and a graph shows your score in each section. To score high, you need to get correct answers and to complete them in the shortest time. In a game like this, you don't need fancy graphics, and the simple cartoony style works well. Although the games are decent enough, I don't feel there is enough content to provide much more than a few days of fun. 15 games seems like an insult and there should be at least 3 times as much to provide enough lastability and value.
The list of games is as follows:
Compute
Balloon burst – pop the various size balloons in face value numerical order.
Mallet Math – remove blocks in a stack so that the total adds up to the given number.
Colour Count – keep a track of balls landing in a basket. You must specify the highest quantity; either blue, red, or equal.

Visualise
Art Parts – You are shown a complete painting and must add parts to your incomplete painting. The trick is sometimes the painting is flipped or mirrored.
Train Turn – Place train tracks so that the train can reach the exit.
Odd One Out – There are 4 moving images and you must spot the one that doesn't match. It's surprisingly harder than it sounds.

Identify
Whack Match – You are given a set of items and must whack the correct mole when he pops up with them.
Fast Focus – Starts off with a zoomed in blurred animal image and progressively gets clearer. It's a multiple choice of four.
Species Spotlight – A small area with many cartoon creatures moving around. You point with the remote to shine a spotlight, then have to specify which creature appears most.

Memorise
Covered Cages – The usual cups and ball game but with covered bird cages. You have to keep tracks of multiple birds as they are mixed around.
Face Case – A few ugly kids go past the screen and you have to choose one person from the multiple choice answers.
Reverse Retention – A sequence of numbers, pictures, sounds is shown, and you have to recall them in reverse order.

Analyse
Match Blast – Tetris style blocks have piled up and you have to destroy a few of them to get the shape shown.
Speed Sorting – Four images are shown and you are given a classification like "has legs", "largest", "warm blooded" and you have to choose one or more that meet the criteria.
Block Spot – A shape made out of blocks is shown and you have to choose a multiple choice of four. The trick is that they are similar and the shapes are rotating.

Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree

Despite its good premise, there is barely any content here to justify paying more than a few quid.

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