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The Big Brain Academy series is back! It’s time to train your brain and pit your brainy prowess against others. Doctor Lobe is ready to coach you through the twenty exercises on offer in this Nintendo Switch instalment.
Practice Makes Perfect
Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain, introduces you to five categories that are aimed at improving brain skills. These include identify, memorise, analyse, compute, and visualise. Each category has four exercises to help train your brain. You may find yourself laying train track, turning back hands on a clock, or trying to figure out if an ant weighs more than a ruby ring. Not as easy as it sounds!
The solo play lets you practice these exercises in one-minute bursts. Every time you get a correct answer the difficulty will go up and you will be awarded points. Once players have won gold medals in all exercises, they will unlock the Super Practice mode. Super Practice lets you start on higher difficulties, which offers a greater challenge.
Once you’re ready to take the practice wheels off, you can test yourself to see if your brain score has improved. Tests consist of five random exercises and then Doctor Lobe will let you know how well you've done.
Sadly, the randomisation of the test can be unfair as some exercises need more time than others. If you get one of these tricky, time-consuming minigames it will greatly impact your score. This leads me onto the crux of the game. Big Brain Academy is meant to test your brain and improve your skills. Yet, as I got better at the exercises, I did wonder what it all meant? Does the game improve cognitive ability, or do you just get better at these exercises thanks to repetition? I guess we will never know.
What I do know is, you won’t find yourself sinking hours into solo play with only twenty available exercises. Instead, it’s a game you may occasionally play each week.
Brain Vs. Brain
The best part about this game is it's multiplayer. The multiplayer comes in two modes, Ghost Clash or Party Mode. Ghost Clash pits players against other players’ ghosts. Instead of playing against a timer, you play for points. The first person to a correct answer will earn more points and the first to reach 100 wins. This is a fun mode where you can pit yourself against others. However, the lack of real-time competition does take the urgency away from the experience. Also, it means I can’t blame losing on latency…
What makes Brain vs. Brain a brilliant game is Party mode. This allows you to host up to four-player local cooperative play. Players can then choose their difficulty setting before play begins. This means the game can be enjoyed by a variety of ages and intellects; there is even a sprout setting available for younger players. What makes Party mode even more intense is the inclusion of 50-point bonuses. If a player finds themselves struggling during a minigame, Doctor Lobe will swoop in and offer them 50-points for a correct answer. This makes the game fair and really anyone can snatch it once Doctor Lobe puts that on the table!
Despite being intellectually fair, the game mechanics can cause disparity. Some games are hard to control for casual gamers and avid gamers can race around due to controller familiarity. This means you may just win because you know how to turn the clock hands back correctly compared to a newcomer.
Dress to Impress
The art design is cutesy and appeals to all age groups. The menus are beautiful and the colours are vibrant! Players can also earn coins throughout their time on the game, and these unlock apparel items along the way. Unlocking items can feel like a grind as you have to play a lot to get enough coins, but the payoff feels rewarding as you dress your avatar in fun and unique outfits.
What I really loved was your avatar can be seen holding a switch, and the switch in question always reflects what you are holding. For example, when playing with my switch my joy-cons were blue and yellow, but when I played with the controller my avatar was then holding that. It’s a small addition but the attention to detail made me smile and love the game even more.
The only issue with the visuals is they're a bit lacklustre when you get into the exercises themselves. Whilst trying to keep the minigames simple they have also kept the visuals simple, which can make it childish looking, but it’s not an eyesore.
Final Verdict
Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain is a fun little game. The single-player mode is brief but offers enough variety to keep you entertained. Its cute design and attention to detail make it wonderful to look at and will appeal to all audiences. What I loved most about this game was the multiplayer functions. Considering its educational purpose, I was surprised at how well it worked in a party setting. The game has quickly become a fan favourite when entertaining. Because the game offers so many difficulty settings it’s easy to get all ages involved. Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain is not without its shortcomings. It's thin on content and some minigames are not balanced which can make it frustrating. However, for the price point, it’s a fun romp with friends and a nice little solo experience if you have a spare fifteen minutes.