Are you ready to challenge relatives and friends with strokes of intelligence? Let’s find out in this review how Big Brain Academy: Challenge of Minds aims to test your brains
How many of you still remember the so-called Touch! Generations? That series of titles for the original Nintendo DS, with which the Kyoto house offered the general public an alternative gameplay, able to be enjoyed by potentially anyone. Inaugurated with Dr. Kawashima’s famous Brain Training, the Touch! Generations managed to earn their own slice of fans, and, on the wave of this success, numerous other titles were produced (most of which took up the concept of brain training).
The popularity of this genre seems not to have been affected by the weight of the years, and in fact today we are here to offer you the review of the latest exponent of a series born in 2005/2006, or Big Brain Academy: Challenge between Minds.
For brains of all ages
Announced only a few months ago, the new chapter of Big Brain Academy has finally landed on the hybrid of the Grande N. Speaking of the series, a comparison with the well-known Brain Training (also recently reappeared on Switch) is almost natural. However, while the title of Dr. Kawashima proposed a more scientific (and at times almost academic) approach, with Big Brain Academy, Nintendo decided to opt for a much more cheerful and carefree style.
However, we must not make the mistake of believing that the latter is an experience dedicated to an audience of children only. In fact, as per Nintendo tradition for this kind of works, behind a graphic style made up of funny characters and simple animated features, there is a game that will entertain and engage both adults and children. Ready to get the neurons to work a little?
At school with Professor Bilancini – Big Brain Academy Review: Challenge of Minds
The first mode that we will analyze in our review of Big Brain Academy: Challenge of Minds will be the one dedicated to the single player. Selecting for the first time the Individual mode you will see a very short introduction that will allow us to create our avatar. In this way we will make the acquaintance of the funny Professor Bilancini, who will guide us in the proposed modalities. There will be a total of five categories: Intuition, Memory, Analysis, Algebra and Perception. In each of them we will find four mini-games, for a total of twenty challenges.
The Stretching mode will allow us to choose and tackle these exercises, in an attempt to score the best score (consequently obtaining a medal), or to try our hand at the Exam. The latter consists, neither more nor less, in facing an exercise chosen at random for each of the five aforementioned categories. The final results of all the tests will then be added up to make up the Cervellone Score, complete with a graph that will show in which areas we excel, and in which instead we need more exercise.
There will then be a mode called Ghost Challenge, in which we will be able to face the aforementioned minigames by challenging the ghosts of other users, such as other users who have logged in with their profile on the same console, or even other players from all over the world. world. The ghosts will basically be virtual challengers calibrated on the results of other users, thus giving the idea of playing in all respects against another person in flesh and blood. By playing daily and getting higher and higher scores, you can finally get coins to unlock aesthetic elements for our funny virtual avatar, such as shirts, hats, and so on.
The Brain of the Family – Big Brain Academy Review: Challenge of Minds
In the face of a rather essential single player, which risks running out in a short time (depending on how many times you want to try your hand at the aforementioned modes), the new Big Brain Academy makes no secret of wanting to bet a lot on its component for multiple players, or that so-called Challenge of Minds which subtitles the game, and to which this paragraph of our review is dedicated. By selecting Party from the initial menu, we will in fact access the multiplayer mode of the title, in which up to 4 players will be able to challenge each other in completing the quizzes proposed by the game. It will be possible to establish how many rounds the challenge will consist of (from a minimum of 2 to a maximum of 5), and the scores scored in each minigame will be added up to decide the winner of the game.
It is nice to note how Nintendo has thought of a series of small tricks to meet the needs of all types of players. In fact, it will be possible to decide whether to manually choose the mini-games to be faced or to rely on a random wheel to do it (in both cases, at each round the decision-making role will be up to a different player). In addition, each player will be able to select their own level of difficulty for each minigame, choosing from 6 options available, able to satisfy users of all levels.
Finally, it is worth noting the possibility, reserved only for challenges between two players in portable mode, to take advantage of the console’s touch controls, sharing the console’s screen to solve the proposed minigames, instead of the (sometimes a little less suitable) controllers.
Genius or reflexes? – Big Brain Academy Review: Challenge of Minds
While it is true that many of the proposed exercises are actually designed to stimulate the mental elasticity of the players (such as those related to logic or based on mathematical calculation), it soon becomes clear that some of these show the side of certain gameplay choices. .
In fact, in some situations it will be required to complete operations that necessarily require the use of precious seconds more, with the obvious consequence of being potentially fun in company but not exactly the best if you face the exam alone. (where every lost moment translates into a scoring penalty). In other situations, however, we will be asked to select the right answer (or answers) from a list on the screen, and, in multiplayer games, this often results in who has the “quickest hand” in bringing the cursor where required.
Some of these situations are then more perceptible at higher difficulties, and especially in TV mode (where it is not possible to use the touch controls) everything will be relegated to the familiarity of the various users with the Nintendo hybrid controllers. Mind you, we are not talking about gross calibration errors, but more about minutiae which however reveal how the intent of the title is not to take itself too seriously. In fact, during the review, the perceived feeling is that Big Brain Academy: Challenge between Minds mainly wants to have fun and get a laugh, recreating an atmosphere in some ways closer to that of a party game.
Final remarks
Big Brain Academy: Challenge of Minds is a fun pastime for the whole family. The single player component runs out very soon, also due to the few modes available, but the focus of the title is clearly its multiplayer sector. The multiplayer mode in fact, although it is always based on the same twenty minigames available, is able to tear more than a smile if faced with the right company. Perhaps some more content would not have been out of tune, but, even in the face of the reduced price, the game is overall pleasantly enjoyable for young and old, thanks also to a simple but apt technical and artistic realization.
What do you think of it? Will you try your hand at the exercises proposed by the funny Professor Bilancini, perhaps challenging the family during the upcoming Christmas holidays? Let us know in the comments and stay tuned to TechGameWorld.com for all the news dedicated to the world of video games. To buy video games at a discounted price, we recommend that you take a look at the Instant Gaming catalog.
The challenge between minds for the whole family
Points in favor
- Fun exercises suitable for young and old …
- Gives the best of himself in company …
- Budget price
Points against
- … but a few more wouldn’t have hurt
- … alone, however, risks running out very quickly
- Some exercises are a little more uncomfortable when done with the pad