Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain

Special thanks to Nintendo for the review copy!

When I saw that Nintendo was offering us a review copy of Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain I was pretty excited. Full disclosure, I had never played a game in the Brain Age or Brain Academy series before this entry. I am, however, in my late 30s, and my brain doesn’t get the same sort of work outs that it did back in my college days. This seemed like a good supplement to my Ring Fit routine – a morning wake up for my brain to go with the one I already have for my body. After a few weeks of daily play, often with a player 2, I think I’m ready to give you my verdict.

Gameplay
First things first, Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain is, at its heart, a mini-game collection. The game itself has several modes (which I will go into in greater detail shortly), but every mode consists of playing some combination of the 20 minigames that make up this title. These mini-games are split up into five categories: Identify, Memorize, Analyze, Compute, and Visualize. Each one of these categories is then further divided into 4 games. Every category helps “flex” a different part of your brain, and most users will likely find themselves stronger in some categories than others initially. These games are short, fun, and consist of activities such as recognizing the subjects of slowly materializing pictures or popping numbered balloons based on their increasing value. The concepts for all these games are very easy to grasp and start off fairly simple, although they can ramp up in difficulty quite quickly. The title allows you to play with button controls or with touchscreen while in handheld mode. I found the touch controls to be much more responsive, but the buttons work fine as well. This is a good thing, as the title has a local multiplayer component that is one of its stronger qualities.

Upon starting your Big Brain Academy Adventure you’ll be greeted by Dr. Lobe, a, umm, you know, I don’t know what he is exactly. A professor at the academy, I’d imagine. In any case, the good doctor will help you with your enrollment. After creating a cute but not very complex avatar (the process is even more streamlined than the Mii creation process) you’re thrown straight into practice. You are not required to practice each of the 20 games, but as you will be using them in every mode I would highly suggest that you do so. You will be rewarded with medals for completing these practice games. If you manage to snag three gold medals in each game (which can take quite a bit of practice and improvement) you’ll unlock the more difficult “Super Practice Mode.”

The game has a test mode that can be played at any time – this mode has you playing one game from each of the five categories, selected at random. It then gives you a “Big Brain Brawn” score. You can always improve this score by continually playing, but the game doesn’t give you much in the way of rewards for doing so. You can unlock various pieces of clothing and gear for your avatar character by playing this mode, but the same rewards can be obtained with other modes as well.

The two modes I ended up enjoying most are this game’s version of multiplayer. The first is a one on one online clash with other player’s preplayed “ghost” data. Anyone who’s played Mario Kart should be familiar with this concept. The players you are going up against are not playing against you in real time but you are instead going up against previous play sessions that they participated in. This works well enough and is an understandable concession when you consider the quick play nature of this game. The other is local real-time multiplayer with up to 4 players. This is a lot of fun and helps highlight that this game is a perfect party game.

Presentation
Honestly, there’s not much to say about the presentation here. The Academy setting is cute and the menus are all very clear. I never felt lost playing this game. The sound similarly gets the job done. Not to say it’s bad in anyway, it’s just that none of it particularly stands out.

Verdict
Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain is a bit of a weird title. It’s a mini-game collection that can act as a party game, but it doesn’t have the depth or variety of something like Mario Party. It’s also a game that helps “train” your brain, but it doesn’t give you a lot of incentive to continue to play and increase your mental fortitude. It should also be mentioned that the world we live in now is far different from when the first Big Brain Academy launched in 2005. That was two years before the first iPhone. Many people tend to use smartphones now for their “brain training” nowadays.

All that being said, however, this game can be a lot of fun. It’s simple, fun to play, and very easy to just pick up. This is the sort of game I can envision players picking up for years to come for quick bursts of gameplay, especially while away from the house. Add that to its value as a party game and its budget price of $29.99 and this game gets an easy recommendation from me.