User Reviews (1 - 11 of 103)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

A New Addiction for Your Mind

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 156 / 164
Date: June 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Big Brain Academy is pretty much an add on to Brain Age. Brain Age was a fantastic and addictive puzzle game. This one is also full of great addiction. While it isn't nearly as good as Brain Age, it does have its moments.

There are only fifteen games in Big Brain Academy. They are divided into five categories with three games each. Two of them are math based, while there is one that challenges you in identifying, another in analyzing, and one more in memory. These games are simple to play and over time become addicting. There are only three modes, however. A practice mode where you'll probably start that allows you to play all the games. It'll save your high score at the end, as well.

There's a test mode, which is probably the best of the lot. In test mode you'll be tested on what you know. The game keeps track of how well you're doing. One game from each category is chosen at random, and you'll have to go through and solve the puzzles. At the end you're given a letter grade, and told what kind of brain you have.

Finally, there's a multiplayer. Up to eight people can play at a time and only one person has to have the game. The others just bring their DS and they go in and play. Here you can compete in any game you choose. It's a race to see who can finish first basically, and whoever does finish first gets the most points and wins. Multiplayer is a treat, but the game is already good enough without it.

The only thing that really keeps Big Brain Academy down is thet there's not enough of it to go around. There aren't enough games and there aren't enough game modes. It's fun and addictive, but there's not enough in the package. However, despite this, it's still worth the reasonable twenty dollar price tag.

Big Brain Academy

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 15 / 18
Date: June 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I have been playing this game for several days. Not really a game but a training program for the brain like Brain Age. Some of the training exercises took me a while to understand. I am a middle age woman as of today a "C" brain grade. Kind of addicting because now I want to get an " A" score. Even my 11yr old son will play it and says it is fun.

Big Brain Academy is Big Brain Fun!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 11
Date: June 14, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I just picked up this game and I have yet to put it down so long as I am awake. Its vast array of short but oh so sweet minigames are too addictive to be educational, and yet they are. You cannot go wrong with this game so I encourage everyone who owns a DS to pick this game up, find a comfortable chair, and dive into the world that is Big Brain Academy.

Not very good

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 25
Date: June 14, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This isnt an amazing game. You quickly feel like you have done evrything over and over... because you do. Get Brain Age its a lot better and more fun.

Great Potential but Not Enough Games

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 380 / 392
Date: June 17, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Big Brain Academy for the Nintendo DS is a lot like Brain Age. It's a collection of puzzles designed to test and stimulate your intellect.

While we enjoy Brain Age, it has numerous issues. You only get 'scored' on each game once a day. The number of games is REALLY limited and many of them can get maxed out within weeks of playing. How much fun is it to get straight 5s on Head Count hard, with no chance of ever improving? I was really happy, then, when Big Brain Academy came along. While it still doesn't have nearly as many games in it as it should have, at least it has a wider selection.

In Big Brain Academy, you're not fighting for a low brain age (which I always found to be an EXTREMELY questionable goal). Insead, you're working towards a "big" brain which is much better. There are puzzles split up into five areas - thinking, memorizing, analyzing, computing and identifying. Each area has 3 games, with multiple difficulty levels. So that's 15 games total. You're already far ahead of Brain Age with that quantity, plus the difficulty levels too.

You can practice as much as you want, aiming for a gold medal in each game at each difficulty level. As you go, you fill up a 'brain graph' - a pentagon that shows which areas you're best at. When you're ready, you do the actual test.

The test randomly chooses a game from each of the 5 areas and sets you at them. It's on a timer, so you do as well as you can within that time limit. At the end, your total brain weight is calculated. This isn't of course "real" - it is more a general scale to show how well you're doing. It also gives you a "type" of brain you have based on what you did well in. Someone who does really well in computing is called a "calculator" - while someone who's great at memorizing and thinking is a "museum curator".

The puzzles are simple but fun. They're the type of puzzles that young kids would enjoy but that adults would find entertaining as well. Traditional things such as memory games, box counting, shape recognition and more are the norm here.

Just like Brain Age, this game shares the problem of INCESSANT CHATTER from the "helper". You have to go paging through numerous completely meaningless messages to get through some areas. They really need to get a handle on that for future releases.

I'm still baffled why they can't have 6 games per area, instead of 3. At least this is a huge step up from Brain Age in that area, but still, there should really be far more games included in the set. It would really help to make this an excellent game, instead of a fun game that has a limited lifetime of enjoyability.

Brain teasing is still fun

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 26 / 27
Date: June 21, 2006
Author: Amazon User

So quickly after their last brain-based hit, Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day!, Nintendo and NST have followed up with the colorful Big Brain Academy. The questions at hand are numerous: what's with all of these brain games? Is Big Brain as entertaining, addictive, and noticeably effective as Brain Age? Is it really worth another $20 to test the brain again?

Big Brain Academy's focus drives away from simply the responsitivity and reactivity of the brain and also focuses on categories like memory, the ability to compute, analyze, and think quickly. There are numerous mini-games availible to test your brain's "size," and the trick here is to come out with the biggest, fattest brain possible.

The mini-games in Big Brain Academy are favorable when compared to those in Brain Age. They're a little trickier. For example, one of them called "Coin-parison" asks you to compare two different amounts of coin and select which of the two is more valuable. Of course, you're expected to select one of the two amounts in a matter of seconds, so the game asks a lot of your mind and forces you to think extremely quickly for optimal results. Another example is the game "Flash Memory," where you're forced to very quickly memorize a sequence of numbers and symbols and then duplicate them with an on-screen calculator. I'd say that the learning curve is a little higher here than it was with Brain Age, but only slightly.

I discovered that Big Brain Academy not only tests your brain, but also your eyesight. Games like "Flash Memory" and "Shadow Shift," which forces you to identify a character based on its shadow, really test how well you can see what is going on on-screen and interpret it.

Big Brain Academy, for the most part, is accurate. After practicing with several of the mini-games, I took my first Big Brain Test and came out with excellent analyzation and memorization skills, but I lacked in computing and thinking quickly. This is pretty accurate to my real-life self, as well as my grade of a B-, which was my high school average.

Visually, Big Brain Academy is a prettier, more colorful, and more engaging game than Brain Age. There still isn't much animation, and there is nothing exciting going on on-screen, but it all beats the Times font and gray backgrounds of Brain Age. The music and sound effects are quirky and sound a lot less like something that you'd expect from a brain game.

Big Brain Academy is a much better game than Brain Age. There are more mini-games, each testing a specific area of mental activity. The addictive quality remains. The presentation isn't as serious, and looks and sounds much better. Really, the only thing that Big Brain Academy doesn't have when stacked against Brain Age is the abundance of sudoku puzzles. Still, Big Brain Academy is worth your $20, and testing your brain has never been as much fun.

A video game you won't mind letting your kids play

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: June 24, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This is a great game for Nintendo DS. There are some terrific problem-solving activities and with the wireless connect, one can challenge a friend (or Mom and Dad!) to see who's got the brain power. I hope they hurry and come out with a Part 2.

Brain Drain

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 15 / 19
Date: July 08, 2006
Author: Amazon User

There are just so many video games out right now, that seem to really be about gaining your memory and stimulationg your intelligence, within the past year. It is very different from puzzles games like Su Doku, to crosswords, and al other kinds. The Nintendo DS has also definitely shown that added to the mind as well. With the success of Brain Age, it has really transformed how gracioualy we use the DS for our minds as well as our fun. Well, Nintendo has also brought out another game for those who've enjoyed Brain Age, and have taken it to the next level on the DS.

Big Brain Academy for the Nintendo DS continues the strengths of brain stimulation that came before with Brain Age. In this game however, there are more complex challenges here to test your memory of your mind, rather than your mind and voice. There are several challenges here such as coin counting, verbal math where instead of a numerical equation, you're given a math problem in words, memory games where you have to indetify a pattern of musical sounds by several creatures and people, and pathfinder in which you have to move your canine through a pattern to find his bone. The graphics and the game look beautiful and really deliver with promise for the DS. The control also measures up quite nicely, by strictly through the stylus. Although the music is cutesy, it can be quite annoying at times. Sadly, this is the only flaw in the game.

All in all, Big Brain Academy happens to be a worth-while game for the Nintendo DS. I really enjoy this game a whole lot. It is definitely worth the price and challenge for any DS owner. If you've enjoyed Brain Age, than you'll love this great knockoff that is worth the mind of memory.

Graphics: A-

Sound: B-

Control: B+

Fun & Enjoyment: A-

Price: A

Overall: B+

Fun for you and your family.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 14
Date: July 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I got this game because I heard something about it on a game show called xplay. It was only $19.99. I got it home and started playing it and I looked and an hour had gone by. The game is very fun to play and once you start time will go by and you won't even know it. I got a ds lite and my mother and I have played and she loves it as much as I do. It is wifi and only 1 game is required so if you get it you can play against your friends or family even if they do not have the game. For the price and the fun this game if surely worth the purchase.

Quick thinking fun

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: July 14, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is great fun to do by yourself and to share with your friends. The concepts are easier, but some are not that simple to master.Worth the money.

Review Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next 

Actions