I’m taking a look at the Wii re-thinking of the popular Nintendo DS mind expanding game Big Brain Academy. This one’s called Wii Degree and uses the pointy clicky fun of the remote instead of the touchy-feely stylus and has support for multi-player fun which turns the thinking game into a party game.
Big Brain Academy has always been the more visual title when compared with Brain Training so it’s only right this one comes to a big telly so all the silly animals and noises can be seen in all their glory. At first I was wary as to whether this game would translate well to the Wii but the good news is that in the most part it does and it makes for a fun, addictive game that works best with the new multiplayer mode.
You begin the game by enrolling to the Academy and doing a number of tests to stretch your memory, visualisation, analization and other skills. These can be anything form edentifying a series of building blocks rotated in different ways, counting how many coloured balls drop into a basket or concentrating on the features of a picture before you know what the question is. When all five tests have been copleted your brain gets ‘weighed’ to see how heavy it is and whether it’s the weight of an ant’s or a university professor. Of course, rocket scientist is what we should all be aiming for.
Unfortunately, there are only around 15 games and you’ll see most of them the first time you play the game. Of course, the puzzles within these games vary but it does get old quickly, which is where the multiplayer shines.
You can play one-on-one as you square up to complete the puzzles the fastest, and even share two remotes between others for up to 8 players, encouraging teamplay.
There are some frustrations though that come with using the remote. Sometimes you hit the wrong icon on the screen just because you didn’t aim correctly which never happened using the stylus of the DS. Also, they’ve tried to use the speaker in the remote for some of the games and it’s quite simply not good enough to hear what’s being said through it sometimes.
Still, not a bad first effort. It’d be nice to see a future version with more games and the ability to play over WiFi – Big Brain Academy gets 6 out of 10.
