Do you remember being back in elementary school and your teacher passing out various math and other simple tests? I still can vividly remember getting a 100 question math test in second grade (sometimes it was addition, subtraction, multiplication, or even division) and trying to answer as many questions in a short time frame. If you answered at least 90 of them correctly you would go up a “rank”, and get a toy or candy, and then the next time you would have less time than the rest of the class to do the test, but you still wanted to get another rank up. I always enjoyed that and found it fun, especially getting the treats. When I first turned on Big Brain Academy these thoughts came rushing back to my head as I tried to compete in this game. Read on to find out more about this very fascinating and addictive game for the Nintendo DS.

The purpose of Big Brain Academy is to figure out how much your brain weighs. This game will give you mind a workout by testing out various aspects of it that will make you think and use different sections that you might not use on a daily basis. There are three modes to play in once you load the game: Practice, Versus, and Test. Practice mode will let you work at the activities at you very own pace and let you improve at them so you can do better in the tests. Versus mode allows you to play with up to eight people to see who has the biggest brain. What is really nice about versus mode is that up to eight people can play off of one video-game card.

Test mode will see “how big your brain is.” After you finish each test it will chose you and give you your brain weight, type, and grade. This is the most fun part of the game as each time you will most likely come up with a different result. It says the average brain is 1400 grams, and it is really hard to get that, especially your first few times playing it. Each time you finish a test when you get your grade you will find out who else might have that, such as a doctor, a lawyer (as a side note I got this profession when I got a “D” for my grade), to even people such as Thomas Edison. This grading that you get, even though it seems random, is another reason why you might keep coming back to the game trying to get better grades to find out what profession or person you are like.

Now that you know about the modes what kinds of activities do you work at might be your next questions. Big Brain Academy works your brain out in five different categories: Think (logic-based questions), Memorize (memory), Analyze (reason), Identify (visual), and Compute (math based). Each category is further split up into three different activities, and for you non math-wiz’s out there that means a total of 15 unique activities to partake in. Instead of giving telling you all of them I will give you my favorite activities from each category.

From the think category the pathfinder game is really fun, you will have to move animals from the top of the screen to the bottom, and they make a turn at each time they reach a corner. You have to draw a line on the touch screen to make them meet up. In the analyze category I like the cube game where you have to count the number of blocks on the top and then input the number at the bottom. Memorize has memo-random where you rememorize the cards on the top screen and then they are turned over and you have to touch the ones at the bottom that match up. Identify has matchmaker were you have to match up same shape and color pairs. Written math is fun in the compute section. There will be a math problem written out and you will have to find the answer.

The graphics for this game will not win any awards for taking advantage of the hardware in any sense. They are very simple in nature and have a cartoon feeling to them. In the visual category of this game you will see pictures of kittens, children, and cars. This is not a bad thing by any means but I think the game could have been a little more in-depth in this area.

Going along with the more “kiddie” graphics the sound will not impress you either. In fact, unless the game is dependant on the sound I tend to turn the sound way down and listen to music or something else in the background. It is not like the sound is annoying it is just repetitious and gets boring quickly.

Big Brain Academy is rated for Everyone.

Gameplay: 8.6
Big Brain Academy is a blast to play. The mini games are really challenging and keep you coming back for more to beat your score. The simple and easy-to-use interface makes this game even better.

Graphics: 6.8
The graphics for this game are extremely simple and very cartoon-ish. Not a game you will impress anyone with in any sense.

Sound: 6.9
The audio for this game is very simple as well, and might get annoying to many players after awhile.

Difficulty: Medium
It is hard to gauge the difficulty of this game because it is only as hard as your mind can handle it. Everyone will find that certain tasks are easier for them than others.

Concept: 8.0
I really enjoyed the entire game. All of the mini-games that make you actually think in order to get better scores. It would have been nice to have a little more variety in the games, but as it is right now it is really fun to play.

Overall: 8.2
Big Brain Academy is a really fun game to play that will keep you entertained for hours. The “tests’ are really short and you can be finished within several minutes, and it is this addictive and short natured game that will keep you coming back for more for hours on end.