What are 3 17’s?
My mum said that to me earlier on today. I used to struggle with mental arithmetic (irony being that anybody who’s studies Maths to A Level and above has shoddy mental arithmetic, you just don’t need it), but I answered quicker than the time it’s taken for you to read “My mum said that” earlier in the paragraph.
Why? Because I’ve been playing Big Brain Academy for the Wii for the past two weeks. Jacob said “I shouldn’t pay more than £10 for it” and WiiWii said it was “Distinctly Average”.
Sorry guys, but you two are liars.
This game is brilliant.
The game takes rather a long time to get going, the sperm-esque Dr. Lobe rattles on about something or other to begin with every day, though you can skip it by pressing the B Trigger. Then you are taken to the student records to set up a new record for your mii, which is presented in an ace cel shaded format.
The main bulk of the games is minigames. You can either practice these on your own to get medals and unlock harder difficulty settings, or carry out a daily test which includes all the games over 60 questions. At the end, you get a score which you can send via WiiConnect24 to all your friends.
The other interesting features are the games you play in a group. Lets be honest, you’re going to have more fun playing with somebody than just playing with yourself, aren’t you? Luckily, social misfits such as myself can play against similar social misfits such as Malcolm via WiiConnect24 by sharing records. No, it’s not proper online like Mario Strikers, but it works okay. The mind sprint especially wouldn’t work that well over the network as an inch of slowdown could prove costly.
Frustrating points are some of the games are too hard. The “Who Wins, Red or Blue?” (Red and blue balls are thrown into a basket, and you have to say who scored more) on Hard and above is almost guesswork, and at times I wish they wouldn’t bother with the easy questions on test yourself - as they focus more on speed than knowledge. Also, it just seems a little shallow. You’re not going to sit down with it for hours on end on your own playing this game. It’s more of a little and often.
I think the makers realise that too, which is why it’s easy to learn and I do feel like I’m getting smarter. There’s no multiplication on it and I managed to answer the question at the top of this post lightning quick.
If you’re still working it out, it’s 51.
For only £20, it’s well worth getting. Sure, you won’t be attached to your Wii as long as Zelda, or Mario Strikers, but it is good fun and - whilst I never would’ve bought these sorts of games two years ago - it is well worth getting out at parties and the like as it’s easy to learn and quite tricky to have a Big Brain.
If you want to get a cerebral ass kicking, my Wii Number is 8781 2520 7829 2583
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Rhys Wynne, the author of this blog, is a 20 something web designer from Colwyn Bay.
Isn’t this just a cheap version of the DS-brain game or a lame version of Warioware?
Despite not testing your brain in the same way i think there’s a lot to be said for Wario-ware as a game!
Are you getting mario party 8 for wii? Im kinda tempted to buy a wii whilst im living in the flat and it looks awesome but oooh i just dunno!
Do NOT get Mario Party 8! Ok, you might like BBA when I said it was shit (and to be fair I hadn’t played it, only read reviews), but Mario Party 8 just sounds like the laziest piece of crap. Now, I have Mario Party 4 and 6, so its not like I hate the series, but with 8:
No widescreen. It forces ugly bars on either side of the screen.
Some of the mini-games don’t even properly use the wiimote, you just hold it like a NES controller
You have to fucking play SINGLE PLAYER to unlock things. I don’t know if you’ve ever played single player Mario Party, but I’d rather repeatedly slam my head in a car door.
If you’ve got Warioware and Rayman Raving Rabbids, there is really no need to get MP8, especially with RRR2 on the way soon.
So there we go :p
What Jacob said.
Mario Party 8 does look a bit rubbish, and the same as all of them.
Stick to the gamecube ones!
Good to hear that you’re getting smarter!
Simple way to work it out (3 17s that is) - 3 20s is 60, the difference between 17 and 20 is 3, 3 3s is 9, 60 minus 9 is 51 Hurrah!
But you already knew that
Us Rhys’… we are a cluey bunch.
Other Rhys: The way I do it is (3×7) + (3×10)
I love my Wii. I don’t get much time to play it though. I’ve just bought the Sims. I’ve never played Sims in my life and I refuse to read instructiosn - i like figuring things out on my own. I’m so excited that my Wii Sports fitness age is now down to a respectabley 30 after my first test 3 weeks ago telling me I was 72!!!
I could never do mental arithmetic, I was the only person who didn’t get 5p for learning my tables.
I have dr.kawishimas brain training on DS = its much better!
3×17 should be ingrained Rhys - think Darts
I love this game - and I’m getting better. Last time i looked Rhys there was only 39g between our brain weights. I’m beating you more on Mind Sprint too. Soon I’ll have the biggest brain in all of Branium *evil laugh*!!!!
oh and as for te sum - I didn’t have a scooby! My maths is appalling and I HATE the compute section!!!!
Thanks for writing this review. This is a game I’ve been considering getting as word-of-mouth has been very good.
My 4 year old really wants a Ben 10 game that is coming out for Wii though, so I may have to put this on the someday list
I can do mental arithmetic with no problems at all, and always have been able to, but actual written down maths bores me to tears so I don’t care about it so I’m rubbish at it!
I want a Wiiiiiiiii! (Imagine my whiniest voice there!)