Given the strong level of success associated with the labeled Touch Generation series of titles for the Nintendo DS, it should not have come as much of a surprise to hear that Big Brain Academy is making its way to the Nintendo Wii.
The console iteration looks and feels much like the widely popular DS title, as the game’s mini-games are speed oriented and require strong mental elements of concentration, memory, cognition, and most importantly quick reflexes.
At Nintendo’s September 14th event Big Brain Academy made its debut in its newfound Wii form for the first time and delighted the audience with its quirky, fun multiplayer appeal.
The demo shown today pits one user against another, in an-all-out race through twelve mini-games of sorts. Fans of the series should know what to expect from Big Brain Academy, the build shown today incorporated several varying repeating challenges where the winning user successfully finishes each of the twelve problems before any of his opponents.
Problems or exercises ranged from replicating pictures by either using the Wii-mote to eliminate single blocks at a time or quickly and carefully rearranging misplaced items on a painting. While some of the rounds will barely prove to be a challenge, others will likely cause some difficulty for the novice Wii user.
For instance, while the exercise of eliminating number(s) from a list to equal a highlighted separate number will rarely cause the user any trouble, however when it comes down to hastily eliminating individual blocks with the Wii-mote and an on-screen pointer troubles will likely arise.
In this early build of the game, the pointer appeared to be a little under sensitive at times when it came to deleting an individual node, as it would often incorrectly select adjacent blocks.
Given that Big Brain Academy is a game predominately characterized by quick, hasty decisions, where one incorrect call has the potential to turn the tide of the entire race, an undeserved mistake caused by the loosely sensitive pointer is disheartening,
Users must quickly solve these exercises to defeat their opponent.
As both players progress up the ladder of twelve exercises the game will repeat the various styles of challenges but they will appear in increasingly more difficult settings.
Take for instance the exercise where the user must promptly abolish one or more numbered blocks, as the versus race progresses onward, the required target number becomes progressively higher while the selectable inputs become more varied numerous.
Asides from the one aforementioned issue with the Wii-mote controlled pointer, the rest of the demo functioned flawlessly with the device, and proved to be a very enjoyable experience.
While not available during today’s press conference, the single player element of Big Brain Academy is set to function similarly to that of the DS iteration but will be accompanied by both versus and cooperative multiplayer matches as well as Mii support, by which users can have their own, personalized character displayed within the game itself.
Despite being very early in its development, Big Brain Academy is certainly progressing nicely on the Wii. If the developers can iron out the one pointer issue and stay creative in terms of problem design and execution Big Brain Academy could become one of the most popular and successful Touch Generation titles.
