Following successful games such as Brain Training and Big Brain Academy on the DS, Nintendo obviously realised they were onto a winner with their claims of games that can actually help to improve memory and knowledge. Therefore here's a review of Big Brain Academy, Nintendo's first attempt at brain training/memory games on the motion sensing Wii.

The main areas of the game are Test and Practice. The Test is quite simple. You take a five part test, after which the host Dr Lobe weighs your brain by adding your scores together. From here he gives you a rating, such as B++ and tells you what area you did best in. Practice works in much the same way, apart from the fact that you get to choose exactly what you want to be tested under, what game you want to be tested on, and what level you want. As your brain reaches certain weights in each game you earn medals. And really, this is where the addictiveness in Big Brain Academy comes from - the desire to get all gold medals.

IDENTIFY
Whack Match: In this game, you are given some symbols at the top of the screen. They can be flowers, foods, any random thing. Moles will pop up from holes holding items - some of which are the symbols at the top of the screen, some of which aren't. The idea is to hit the moles that are holding the correct symbols.
Fast Focus: In this game you are given a choice of four animals. The screen will then show an animal distorted in some way, such as with each pixel coming in, with random strips coming in, or zooming out. The idea is to quickly identify what the animal is.
Species Spotlight: In this game you are given a choice of animals. A dark screen is shown with different animals hiding behind it. The idea is to move around the screen and then pick which animal there are more of.

ANALYSE
Match Blast: A shape is shown next to a pile of blocks. You must then remove blocks in order to make the shape shown.
Speed Sorting: Some images are shown with a question. The questions can be things like "Which is the biggest?" and "Which can fly?" You must then click the corresponding images.
Block Spot: A shape is shown, while four more are below it. You must pick which of the shapes matches the ones hown.

There are multiplayer games, but personally I don't find them enjoyable. My favourite out of them is one that involves racing, where each person is given the same amount of questions and must complete them first. This isn't really fair though. It would be more fun if each person got the exact same question, as it is different some people will get the longer games while some people get harder games, and it's basically just luck as to which questions you got about who wins. This is amusing if you are using the Remote Coaches though, as with both of them yelling and encouraging their user, it sounds as if they are arguing between them.