Nintendo News | Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree Hits Europe

With Dr. Kawashima's More Brain Training already being promoted in UK stores in preparation for its 29th June release, Nintendo has confirmed the date for Big Brain Academy on Wii. The follow up to Big Brain Academy for Nintendo DS, this Wii title contains all new mini-games and multiplayer modes allowing you to challenge family and friends from the comfort of your living room. Big Brain Academy for Wii launches across Europe on 20th July 2007 and is part of Nintendo's Touch! Generations range of games, designed for people of all ages, gender and gaming experience.

Big Brain Academy for Wii contains a selection of quirky and exciting mini-games which are designed around the Wii Remote pointer making them quick and intuitive to control. The mini-games are divided into five categories: Visualise, Memorise, Analyse, Compute and Identify and contain a variety of activities ranging from, for example, bursting numbered balloons in order to arrange pieces of a train track to allow the train to reach a specific area. All of these allow you to push your brain by answering them as quickly as possible, whilst maintaining accuracy and with three different difficulty settings to choose from, this title will provide a challenge for the whole family.

Guided by Dr Lobe (a talking brain lobe complete with spectacles and a mortar board hat!), you begin the game by creating a profile and enrolling your Mii character in the academy. This allows you to record your results within the game and keep track of your progress in each category. In the single player Test mode, you play through all five categories after which Dr Lobe will calculate your Big Brain Academy brain weight based on your reaction speed and number of correct answers. In addition, you will be given a grade for your Student Record, where all game data is saved, and a spider graph is generated showing you your individual strengths and weaknesses within the game in these five areas.

Play the Test mode often and you will be able to chart your progress in your Student Record and watch your Big Brain Academy brain weight get heavier as you do better in the mini-games. If you would like to put in some practise, you can use the practice mode to play any game at any difficulty level and Dr Lobe will award medals for high achievement.

The three multiplayer modes in Big Brain Academy allow you to test your brain against up to eight other people. Mind Sprint allows two players to go head-to-head in a split-screened race, where up to eight players can play as two teams. With rounds of up to 24 games to play in each match. Other multiplayer activities include the Mental Marathon where players must attempt to keep a perfect score throughout games and the Brain Quiz, which allows players to select and perform a random selection of 12 mini-games or categories while attempting to keep their perfect record intact. These mini-games include activities such as the Memory activity: Order Out where players must memorise a list of food items that are dictated from the Wii Remote speaker, to the Think activity: Frame Filler where players have to fit the missing piece in an animated puzzle.

Big Brain Academy for Wii allows players to send and receive student record books with friends who also own the game, from all over the world, using WiiConnect24. Players will then be able to compete against them in Mind Sprint mode where Wii then uses the player's student record to work out how well they would perform and sets the activities accordingly.

Join the Big Brain Academy for Wii when it launches across Europe on 20th July 2007, at the estimated retail price of around