Big Brain Academy for Wii

Well, for starters the game certainly is not Wii-worthy in terms of visuals, but then again the 'non-gamer' style games rarely are, especially with the likes of Wii Play and Wii Sports being as basic as you can get and even the upcoming Wii Fit taking the same direction. Everything is very plain in the fact that there are various Mii characters running around a simple University hallway and that is about it, but there is a plentiful supply of sickeningly bright colours in the tasks themselves, if you like that sort of thing. The music is instantly forgettable as well, aiming squarely at being 'non-offensive' to please the crowds, meaning that presentation-wise on the whole things are not extremely positive.

 

But hey, these brain games are all about the stimulating content that makes your brain better, and gives you some entertainment for your money as well, right? Well, you would think so, sure. However, after playing the perfectly refined More Brain Training recently, moving onto BBA for Wii was a major comedown. This game is such a disappointment, really in the same way that the DS version of it was extremely limited as well. Now, though, it lacks even more appeal as it is on the big screen and cannot be played in short bursts whenever and wherever you are.

The games on offer are nowhere near as mentally arousing as those in Brain Training. The main game is broken down into five main categories: Identify, Analyse, Memorise, Compute and Visualise

 

The idea is that you complete the tasks in the five different categories and are then given a 'Brain Weight', with 1,400 grams being what the teacher of the game achieves and the maximum seemingly being 3,000. At least you can then compare you brain weight with friends and family at home or across the world (thanks to WiiConnect24 support). Sadly, all the tasks are just there on the table for you to play in one go and thus can become boring quickly and there is no real impetus to make you come back each day. Impressing some weird floating yellow teacher with glasses and no legs is not the same as Kawashima-san nearly crying at your massive daily improvements! Also, the idea of Brain Weight does not have the same impact as keeping your brain at the optimal age of 20, so again the lure of coming back to 'improve' yourself is somewhat lost, especially when the general advice given afterwards is so bland and predictable (for example, do well on the Analyse side and you will be told that apparently you are good at analysing things! Wow, masterful...). Finally, all the tasks hardly stretch you, in particular the likes of the 'Whack-a-Mole' style affair and the 'Find the birds under the cages' one where the concealed bird is switched around and you must follow it quickly and point out its final position are laughable. However, at least the Wii controller input works splendidly, with everything being point-and-click related, making navigation a breeze.

 

Many say the main draw of BBA for Wii is the multiplayer aspect, which is all well and fine if you have the luxury of having mates round all the time or a family unit that does not mind dropping daily tasks to sit around and join in with you. Yet, again, the appeal of racing through different tasks to see who is the quickest, for instance, or taking part in a quiz that mixes up tasks (plus adds a couple of extras, such as one where food/drink orders are spoken to you via the Wii-mote's speaker and need to be remembered) will also grow tiring very quickly, leaving BBA with nothing much to offer. So sadly, until Nintendo gets the good ol' doctor on the case for Wii, it would be hard to recommend this to anyone other than large family units that have younger children looking for some simple brain activities.