Big Brain Academy: Brain vs Brain | Small games for big brain

Big Brain Academy: Brain vs Brain, the newest one for the Nintendo Switch, is quite simply a collection of 20 mini-games that test the abilities of your neurons, alone, with friends in your living room or online. Nothing very revolutionary, but done with care and efficiency.

Karim Benessaieh
Press

Originally released for the Nintendo DS in 2005, Big Brain Academy underwent a redesign for the Wii in 2007 before it faded from the radar screen. So here we are 14 years later with a new version for the Nintendo Switch, Brain vs Brain, which uses the same very basic graphics, small catchy music and characters who quickly parade incomprehensible sentences with subtitles.

The big difference here is related to the very concept of the Nintendo Switch, which can turn into a portable or home console. The mini-games are therefore accessible with a controller or directly on the touch screen of the Switch.

Fast and precise

The heart of Brain vs Brain, these are 20 mini-games grouped into five categories: identification, memory, analysis, math and perception. For example, you have to tap on the mole that displays a precise image, determine which are the most numerous animals using a flashlight, identify as quickly as possible which animal is revealed little by little in a scrambled photo.

You will be asked to place the hands of a clock according to certain commands (for example advance 80 minutes), reproduce sequences of 2 to 7 characters on a kind of calculator, follow the little animals that are moved in cages that we hide from you, establish which animal is the heaviest on a scale. You often have to be quick to calculate, find the intruder or the small detail in a series, deduce which shell shapes will give the one you are shown.

You have one minute to complete each challenge, the difficulty and pace of which increase as the answers go. Do not go there randomly, you will lose points. After each event, you are entitled to a bronze, silver or gold medal, and a certain number of stars and coins. As a reward, for every ten coins, you are entitled to a new piece of equipment for your avatar, such as sci-fi glasses or cat ears.

The level goes from very childish (for example retyping the numbers 2 and 3) to very complicated, with series and tests that put your speed and your memory to the test. It is one of the undeniable charms of this concept: an eight-year-old will have his work cut out for him to reach the average level, the more seasoned player will be challenged the further he goes with difficult events.

The games are imaginative, rather varied and sometimes surprising. Obviously, everything is very simplified and in 2D with nice little music. Don’t expect action-adventure style mini-games, we’re closer to the puzzles that some sites sometimes give you to make sure you’re not a robot.

Passed the test

We noted that some games did not lend themselves to the use of a controller – the clock and memory calculator, for example. In general, you have an advantage when you use the Switch as a portable console.

Each game establishes a “brain score” and earns you warm congratulations or a polite comment from your teacher. When you feel ready, ideally after trying all 20 mini-games, you have access to an exam. This will establish your score in the five categories and give you your overall score. Whoever has no training, the teacher tells us, will have an average score of 1500. We got 1889, which is fair.

You can train alone or face up to three friends, who obviously have to have a controller or a Joy-Con. In confrontation, you can decide the mini-game or let a wheel of luck choose. Players appear side by side on the screen and the fastest to find the correct answer wins points. Whoever reaches the score of 100 wins the tournament.

If you’re a Nintendo Switch Online subscriber, you can also take on the world in a “Phantom Battle”. The principle is the same as in local mode: you play with an opponent in the same game, the fastest wins points and the one who gets 100 wins. As we tried this game before its release, the choice of opponents was very small, just five, among which we managed to occupy a very flattering second place in the world. No doubt our score will plummet when thousands of motivated young players get started.

The verdict: a very pleasant little video game, offering good challenges with 20 mini-games that can be toured in less than two hours. The idea is to come back to improve in each category, for example to get the most gold medals to unlock other challenges. Not sure that in single player mode, you’re going to want to devote so much time to it. But as group or online fun, it’s quite successful.