Parents' Guide to

Big Brain Academy

By Jinny Gudmundsen, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 8+

Families compete for "weightiest" brain.

Game Nintendo DS 2006
Big Brain Academy Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this game.

Community Reviews

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age 8+

Based on 2 parent reviews

nduns
nduns Adult
September 27, 2009
age 6+

A good game for kids, but can be evil at times

Okay, I don't understand the grade system at all. It almost seems impossible to get higher than C+. Also, some of these games can be unfair, for example, the dog biscuit one. It's fine until they introduce the moving blue blocks. You can easily go to the exact position it tells you to and the blocks move in a way that ensures you're not gonna get that bone. That's pure evil. Also, after a while, yeah, it does get repetative as you'll find yourself playing the same games constantly. It's good for kids, but it's almost insulting to one's intellect, especially with the grade system.

This title has:

Educational value
MelodyMV
MelodyMV Parent
August 14, 2009
age 9+

Maybe it's not for the Average Brain

It's a good game to test your skill within certain game categories, but after a while you get bored because it seems repetitive and get discouraged when your Brain Age grade never gets higher than C+ (I don't want to know what that says about me). My nephew was discouraged after averaging a Brain Age grade of C and although he practiced games within the practice portion, he just couldn't get into it because, according to him, "the challenge is no longer there, especially when I keep getting a C." And so, we both gave the game a break and played Scrabble.

This title has:

Educational value
See all 2 parent reviews

What’s It About?

The premise behind BIG BRAIN ACADEMY, Nintendo's second title that promotes \"exercising\" your brain, is that you are competing for the \"Biggest Brain,\" a designation determined by how well you perform on the provided tests. Tests are made up of five one-minute Mini games drawn from a pool of 15 games and divided into five categories: Memorize, Identify, Compute, Analyze, and Think. Your test score is given in terms of grams -- the more grams your brain weighs, the smarter you are. In the Memorize category, one of the games flashes numbers on the screen and you punch those numbers into an on-screen calculator using the stylus. In one of the Identify games, you examine a grid of objects to find matching pairs. Under the Compute category, you will answer math problems that are written (\"thirteen plus eight is\"); and under the Analyze category you will have to determine the number of cubes in a picture. At the end of a one-minute game, you receive a score and if you missed any, you can review those questions and retry them.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (2):
Kids say (10):

To compete against family members or friends, you only need one software cartridge, but as many Nintendo DS units as you have players. Parents and kids can go head-to-head answering the same questions to see whose brain is bigger. Since this game is easy to learn and tests skills adults are comfortable with, this is a good way for parents who have not played video games with their kids to jump in.

The brain scoring seems a little wacky but most of our testers were able to add weight to their brains the more they played. These games require players to know how to read, understand money, and do addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division; so this is not a good fit for those under 8 years of age. It is good for friends and family looking for a video game to play together.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about which of the 15 games they like best and why. Do you think you are getting smarter by playing these games?

  • Can you think of real-life jobs where math computations are a part of the job? Does the educational aspect of the games make you feel good about playing or does it feel more like homework?

Game Details

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