Topic: IMPRESSIONS: Big Brain Academy (temporary name)

[Pale]

How does the DS hit stack up on Wii?

Wii Big Brain Academy is the only game at the event that really flew under the radar for me.  I was so surprised to see it sitting there, free to play, when I was wandering around.  I’m a big fan of the DS game so I immediately picked it up.    

It turns out the game is quite early.  There was only a multiplayer demo available so I was lucky enough to have a NOA localization guy come over and play a round with me.  Turns out he worked on localizing the DS game and would probably be localizing that one as well (it was in Japanese still).  The demo was set up similar to the multiplayer mode of the DS game.  It was simply a race to answer the puzzles as quickly as possible.  Unlike the DS game, each player had different puzzles to solve, so screen watching wasn’t a problem.  This build only had three types of puzzles available…    

• Complete the Painting - In this puzzle you are presented with two paintings, the second of which is missing some of the objects contained in the first.  You must use the pointer to place those missing objects accordingly.  Difficulty ramps up by rotating and mirroring the painting to confuse you.
   




• Eliminate the Blocks - In this game you are presented with two images of blocks.  It is possible to make the second image match the first by eliminating just one block.  Blocks slide down if one below them was eliminated.  If they match, you succeed.
   




• Block Addition - In this game you are presented with four blocks that have numbers on them and one total.  You must choose the right block to eliminate so that the remaining blocks add up to the total.

   

Even though there were only three games to draw from, it was still quite fun.  The NOA developer made it to the last step of the race very quickly and then quit playing to let me win.  (It took me a while to understand some of the games!  Seriously!)  I love the DS title and I know I’m going to love this one, even though it is another mini game based party title for Wii.