Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree [Wii]

Starting life on the Nintendo DS as the sequel to multi-million seller Brain Age, Big Brain Academy brings its brand of mind-bending logic and memory games to the Wii. Unlike Brain Age, Big Brain Academy doesn't actually maintain the pretense that it's developing your brain in any way. No, Wii Degree is all about fun -- and it certainly hits the spot. But it doesn't take a degree to figure out that $50 for a handful of simple minigames isn't a great deal.

WATCH TRAILER

The Wii is the perfect platform for Big Brain Academy, no doubt about that. No more staring at the DS's cramped screen, no more fumbling with the tiny stylus. All Wii Degree's games are played with the same mouse-like one-button, point-and-click interface -- no fancy motion sensitive controls here, and none are necessary. This is a game that anyone even vaguely familiar with the idea of pointing a remote can play with ease.

Wii Degree's minigames are grouped into five categories: visualize, compute, identify, memorize, and analyze. Each category has three games, and each game is ranked both on your accuracy and your speed of response. Once you've run through a full set of tests you'll be politely informed, with a fancy ceremony, of the weight of your brain. Think of it as an overall score -- and it's one you'll no doubt want to increase.

Different folks will perform better in different categories, so the game cleverly draws a pentagon-shaped chart of your relative proficiency in each one. On balance, the difficulty level is very well pitched; each game is pretty much self-explanatory, and you'll barely need to glance at the rules. Big Brain Academy is yet another Wii game you could play with your gran, and who knows, she might even beat you.

BROWSE SCREENSHOTS

While you play, your remote will periodically spout encouragement from its speaker. It's a nice feature, but it could have been taken further -- under most circumstances, it'll just tell you when you're approaching the end of a minigame set. Thanks, but that's written in the corner of the screen. It's a little more useful in one minigame where you memorize spoken food orders, but that game is tucked away in one of the multiplayer modes and doesn't appear often.

Each save is tagged with your Mii, and there's a quick and easy way to send your high scores to all your friends. If you happen to have a couple of buddies playing the game, you'll be able to see how you rank against them. You can even "compete" against a friend's Mii -- they'll perform roughly in line with their owner's skills. In the absence of richer online functions like league tables or genuine online play, this is the perfect way to implement the feature, and it works beautifully.

Not enough for you? Wii Degree supports up to eight local players, although a maximum of two can play at once (with more, you have to pass around the remote). As a party game, Wii Degree does well, thanks to its outstanding accessibility, short games, and high potential for competitiveness -- and unlike some other games, you won't need a whole stack of pricey Wii remotes to enjoy it.

Big brains are certainly desirable, but big price tags are a different matter, and Wii Degree's standard $49.99 asking price is a little hard to stomach. While the game is tons of fun, there's just a handful of minigames and not much else, which puts it in a different class to other full-priced options. At $20 or $30 (similar to the DS games), it'd be a much easier recommendation. Kudos to Nintendo for the simplicity, multiplayer, and online support -- cut the price a little and it would be a winner in the casual party game stable.