Big Brain Academy

[Not Thread Owner]

Hurrah! More excercising for the BRANE!

My copy arrived yesterday. After something Xevious said about it being aimed at primary school kids, I was a little concerned. I needn't have worried - it clearly isn't. Yes, it *looks* kiddy (especially compared to Brain Age), but only in the same way that Mario games do. Some of the "games" are rock hard.

It differs from Brain Age in that you don't play daily. There's also a lot more variety in the types of tests you do, and it charts your progress in a different way. Basically, there are 5 areas of brain exercise: Thinking, Memory, Analyse, Compute and Identify. Within each area, there are three tests, and each test has three levels of difficulty.

Progress is in the form of one of them star-chart thingies. There's a pentagon with each area on a corner, and a blue blob that expands out to each point as you progress in that area. You need to get a Gold medal on each level in each test in every area in order to fill the pentagon.

Some of the trials include: mental arithmetic (of the form "ten plus five", not BA's "10+5"), finding which object weighs the most from a combination of scales with objects on, matching pairs, remembering sequences of numbers and symbols, filling a silhouette shape with smaller shapes (like a jigsaw), etc.

Unfortunately, one of the trials is broken if you're not from the US - you're given two boxes of US coins, and have to say which total is worth more. This is even more stupid as my version is the Canadian one. However, you can press a button to show the coin values, and over time you'd learn them anyway. There's only four types of coin, it seems.

Scoring is done on a "brain weight" basis. The better you do, the heavier your brain. You can do a "weight test", which picks (randomly) one trial from each area that you have to do in succession. "Professor Lobe" (who looks like a penis) grades for each section with a weight, then adds them up at the end. 750g is "average", apparently. Lobe has a weight of 1900g or so. The boff. My first score was 824g.

If you liked Brain Age, you'll probably like this. If you got pissed off with the voice and handwriting recognition of Brain Age, you'll be pleased to know there's no such problem here. Colour-blind people which still have a problem, though.

[Bushtopher]

Cool, thanks for the impressions.

I have this on the way too (from Movietyme, so could arrive any time between today and 1 month!) and am looking forward to some more puzzle brainy goodness :-)

[northy]

This is £12.99 from Movietyme for anyone who doesn't use the Bargain folder. Hopefully mine will be waiting at home for me tonight.

[shirubagan]

Oh... I was under the impression that this was Brain Train for TEH KIDZ.

Must go and buy!

[Xevious]

' date='Jun 9 2006, 12:42 PM' post='3136569']

Oh... I was under the impression that this was Brain Train for TEH KIDZ.

So was I. I'll have to look into this further then ...

[Nick Laslett]

I asked the two sales assistants in GAME their Brain Age and they said 40 and 61

[Not Thread Owner]

I asked the two sales assistants in GAME their Brain Age and they said 40 and 61

That's either how many stones they weigh, or how many cans of Right Guard they go through a week.

[Fondue]

That's either how many stones they weigh, or how many cans of Right Guard they go through a week.

Except they clearly go through ZERO cans a week.

[Not Thread Owner]

Except they clearly go through ZERO cans a week.

They use plenty. It just isn't enough.

[Polmon]

Does this version have more Sudoku on it? I fear I'll burn through the ones on BT soon and feel th eurge for more (doing them on paper is tedious beyond compare).

[MoFo2]

Posted this on NTSC-UK, but maybe somebody here can help too?

I bought this game from VG+, never played it and sold it. Now the buyer claims it's a demo version. Could anyone here help me? Is this really a demo version or what?

If anyone can show to a specific part in the manual where this is mentioned that would be great as well.

[spaceyjase]

Surely you need to register [a profile] to play the full game? The demo button is there for, well, the demo. Why do you care? Tell him to RTFM. He obviously needs teh brain training.

[MoFo2]

Well, he thinks he got the demo instead of the full game so he wants his money back. So the "register" is in "in" the game, you don't have to connect through WiFi to register somewhere? Sorry for my noobness

Can you give me a specific page number in the manual where it's explained? Thanks for the help btw

[Initial K]

The 'Demo' part is something you send wirelessly to another DS so someone near you without the game can try it.

[northy]

Just click one of the register files, that should prompt you to enter in your name.

I might be in the options menu, I forget to be honest. But that's the correct menu screen in general.

[boilingpoint]

That's a cool-looking DS! WANT.

[MoFo2]

Thanks for all the help, I'll fire an email to the guy. Should be mentioned in the manual as well.

That's a cool-looking DS! WANT.

I think that's just a Mario-decal (?) on a black DS Lite.

[TheSlugFormerlyKnownAsNap]

The DEMO option is there to play the game without having to make a profile. So you can give it to your Auntie Ethel and she can try it out without overwriting/polluting your progress. The register buttons are there to create a profile and keep track of your progress. ie, it's a retailversion and not a demo-version. Your customer is a dimwit and needs all the training he can get!

Brain Training had pretty much the same options.

[MoFo2]

The DEMO option is there to play the game without having to make a profile. So you can give it to your Auntie Ethel and she can try it out without overwriting/polluting your progress. The register buttons are there to create a profile and keep track of your progress. ie, it's a retailversion and not a demo-version. Your customer is a dimwit and needs all the training he can get!

Thanks for all the help guys, let me know if you need a book about Norwegian trolls

[Marzipan Travolta]

Just send him a link to this thread, bloody 'tard.

I like Big Brain Academy more than Brain Training. It's more fun and more varied and it doesn't get cross if I don't play it for a week.

[boilingpoint]

I think that's just a Mario-decal (?) on a black DS Lite.

UNWANT!

I like Big Brain Academy more than Brain Training. It's more fun and more varied and it doesn't get cross if I don't play it for a week.

Cool, will give it a try when I'm not quite so pooooor.

[Cyhwuhx]

.::: Got the Wii version today. It's pretty small, but at the price of a cheap DS game. Still it seems even the DS version was 'bigger'. Would've been better as WiiWare imo. I like the 'train-puzzle' a lot though.

[SeanR]

I'm a C+ on the DS version at 1043g

I'm an "economist"

[Cyhwuhx]

.::: B--, Doctor at the moment. Around 1100g? It plays well, but it's so limited.

[choddo]

A- 1645g I think. Erm, can't remember the brain categorisation.

There's some games on there which I just can't do well. That orange Identify one where you make shapes out of pieces is a nightmare and the shadows is a bastard too.

[Jolly]

Myself and M'lady played the Wii version for hours last night. It's brilliant. The Brain Quiz and Mind Sprint offer either a laid back multiplayer or a balls to the wall intense-a-thon. It helps that our brains clearly work in different ways; the number and memory ones I fly through, she bests me on visualising. This adds some tactics to the quiz as we try to exploit the others weakness.

Better than Warioware I reckon.

[Massive Invisible Dog]

It's really good in multiplayer, but there's almost nothing to it in single player, only the option to play all of the minigames, which there aren't that many of, for medals.

Still, it's not bad for £15.

Better than Warioware I reckon.

Definitely.

[JPickford (retired mod)]

Offer him a copy of Small Brain Academy

[Rudderless]

I like to kid myself that I was partly responsible for the budget price, as - when previewing the Japanese release (at full-price) - I commented "it'd be great if NoE are sensible enough to release it for around £20". Or words to that effect.

It's well worth the £16-£17 you can pick it up for online - multiplayer's great fun.

[therealjohnpeat]

My other-half and I have played the DS version a lot and so we picked-up the Wii version - and it's similarly rather-good.

It improves on the DS version by mixing the puzzle-types in each category. The problem with the DS version was that your 'top' score would come when you got the puzzles you do best in each of the 5 categories - the Wii version is much fairer.

It seems to rely a little less on 'time' too - the DS version became a reaction test once you'd reached a certain level - it wasn't solving the puzzle, it was how quickly and accurately you could enter the answer - again the Wii version seems to have moved this on.

Overall they've both aces IMO - my other-half won't play Brain Training because she refuses to shout at the DS (and it's speech recognition is a bit shoddy anyway!)