Nintendo Spills Contents Of Its Big Brain

April 12th, 2006, 18:06 Posted By: wraggster

We've been fannying about with Nintendo's Brain Age on the tube in the morning, ever since we got hold of it at GDC this year. As great as it is though, it's still all a bit po-faced and (whisper it) a little too much like actual work. Step in Big Brain Academy for the DS then, taking the basics of Brain Age and whipping them up into a more family-friendly outing. Now, Nintendo's revealed a little more about Big Brain Academy and it's sounding splendid.
Unlike Brain Age, which runs tests to figure out the age of your bonce muscle (the optimal age being twenty), Big Brain Academy rates the weight of your brain based on your performace during Thinking, Memorization, Computation, Analysis and Identification activities in Training Mode - obviously, the heavier the better. The game then identifies the areas where you need some improvement, meaning you can practice until your brain's positively humungous.

Big Brain Academy also features multiplayer shenanigans for up to eight people, using a single game card - unsurprisingly, the goal's to compete in all the activities and see who's got the biggest brain. Winners get to wear the Sizeable Hat of Victory (or at least they would if we had any say in the matter).
Courtesy of Nintendo, here's a gander at some of the different activities tucked away inside Big Brain Academy.

Think:

Heavyweight - Choose which object weighs more - it's not so easy with three different scales.

Pathfinder - Look at the creature on the top screen and draw a line that will lead him to his friend.
Memorize:

Sound Bites - Carefully listen to people and animals as they make noise, then try to touch them in the correct order.

Memo-Random - Examine the panels on the top row, then touch the correct one when the panel is replaced by a question mark.
Analyze:

Missing Link - Look at the red line in the picture on the top screen and draw it into the picture on the touch screen. Watch out! Some pictures will be inverted.

CubeGame - Count the blocks, being careful not to forget the ones hiding at the bottom of the stack.
Compute:

Coin-parison - Choose the panel with the greater amount of money.

Written Math - Read the problems in word form, then solve them by tapping the number pad on the Touch Screen.
Identify:

Shadow Shift - Tap the images on the Touch Screen that match the spinning shadows on the top screen.

Matchmaker - Look through a number of colorful panels to find the matching pair.
Big Brain Academy is set to hit stores in Europe later this year.

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