Big Brain Academy

Advantages: Simple, colourful, amusing
Disadvantages: Not much to it

...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. Big Brain Academy is an extremely simple game. There's not exactly very much to it and you could easily complete all that the game has to offer within a few minutes. However, the theory behind the game does not involve simply try and completeing the game as fast as possible, but more about continuing to play the games over and overa again in order to try and acheive a higher score. The main areas of the game are Test and Practice. The Test is quite simple. You take a five part test...

hi_nicola 06.08.2007 · Read review
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Review of Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree (Wii)

Kwame Academy

Advantages: Great show
Disadvantages: Only on for a week

...It wasn’t so long ago, I was riveted to Fame Academy – watching the gorgeous Malachi Cush, the equally gorgeous Sinead Quinn and the rather naughty-but-sexy Ainslie Henderson. That time, David Sneddon won and had a number one single not long after. Sinead and Ainslie have since had top five singles and Malachi’s album is due out this month. Now, however, we have a new style programme gracing our screens nightly for a week – Celebrity Fame Academy. Similar format, same staff, but with celebs. This time, it’s all for Comic Relief. People phone in to vote for their favourites, which raises money for charity. In the same way as Celebrity Big Brother did last year, this gives us celebs as you have never seen them before, a whole lotta laughs and one damn good piece of telly! The celebrities taking part are...

KarenUK 10.03.2003 · Read review
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Review of Fame Academy - BBC1

Big Brain Academy Review

Advantages: Enjoyable, addictive
Disadvantages: Not one for the more hardcore gamer

...Big Brain Academy is the second title in Nintendo's brain game series. You can test your brain power in five different categories: thinking, memorization, computation, analysis, and identification. Some of the games included are comparing stacks of coins to find the higher value and quickly counting a huge stack of books. Each exercise takes less than a minute to complete so it's the sort of game you can pick up and play if you have a few minutes to kill. After you take the quiz, you'll get the weight of your brain, your best areas and the areas you need to work on. Overall the games are good because they don't only rely on mathematics but require a variety of skills and an all round intelligence is required to gain a good overall score. These sorts of games have come under fire a bit recently as being for casual gamers, but as...

Walter_Kovacs 10.12.2008 · Read review
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Review of Big Brain Academy (Nintendo DS)

The Academy Is ... disappointing

Advantages: A few good songs
Disadvantages: Bad production and "Everything We Had"

...I am a very big fan of the first effort from The Academy Is titled 'Almost Here.' The Chicago based pop punk band, fronted by william Beckett, delivered a highly original and enjoyable debut album in 2004, released through the record label Fueled by Ramen. Fueled by Ramen have already brought us such bands as Panic! at the disco, Fall Out Boy, Cute Is What We Aim For and pretty much any of the other bands consisting of American twenty-somthings with girly hair. The Academy Is fits nicely into this subgenre of pop punk emoish US bands which have been flooding our radios and stereo's in the past few years. I brought The Academy Is second album "Santi" in its first week of release back in April 2007 keen to hear more from a band which contained much promise. The album's bizarre name; "santi" is short for "Santiago" and dates back to...

ollie19 05.07.2008 · Read review
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Review of Santi - Academy Is (The)

Brixton Academy Rocks

Advantages: Fantastic intimate venue
Disadvantages: Queues and ticket touts

...I came across this venue whilst surfing the net for gigs and I am so glad I happened upon it. I love looking thro different catagories on ebay (internet auction site) and Im a huge fan of Linkin Park - with this in mind I happened to find that they were playing at the Brixton Academy on March 5th 2003. Funny old thing tickets had been sold out almost as soon as they went on sale which was why they were doing a brisk business on Ebay. I decided to have a bit of a research day before buying the tickets, just in case. I quite easily located the Brixton academy site, which gave very easy, concise gig information and so much more. The Venue Built towards the end of the 1920s as a movie theatre and to this day still has the look of a old fashioned theatre. On catching my first sight of the academy, not a place to be forgotten. It...

tazmac25 09.03.2003 · Read review
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Review of Brixton Academy

DS BIG BRAIN ACADEMY!!!!!!!!!

Advantages: some good categories and will test your brain
Disadvantages: becomes a little boring but still fun game to own

...Come and test your brain out on Big Brain Academy! This game will test your brain and give you a grade! Train your brain in five different categories at the big brain academy!. These are the 5 categories in the game: Analysis Computing Think Memorize Identify You can also play versus if another friend has a ds you can play head to head against each other to see which one is smarter. You can then go ont the Test mode. It will pick one random activity from each group and will then add up your score and give you an overall grade. I would recommend this game to 11+ as some of the activities are a little to hard for the younger children. As I still struggle with some of them!. It says 3= on the front of the box but i still say 11+. I have had this game for a few months now and still play it often. You get medals...

xmarymoobagx 31.07.2007 · Read review
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Review of Big Brain Academy (Nintendo DS)

Big Brain Academy - Wii

Advantages: fun, educational, good value for money
Disadvantages: more difficult for younger players

...Nintendo wii - Big brain academy : This game is great value for money and is one of the cheapest nintendo wii games i have seen. Priced anything between £15 and £20 i'd say it is fantastic value for money. I purchased this about 4 months ago now and i'm still hooked. I wouldn't say i play it every day but i do try to have a go at least once a week. Not only is this game great fun but you do learn whilst playing it. I love to have a go as it gives my brain a rest from day to day motherly chores and gives me a real mental workout! You have the choice of playing mini games or working on your profile to see how your score is getting better. I love doing both. I work on my stats to give me the much needed practice to outsmart my dear husband! It's great to see his face when i beat him. From memorise to visualise, compute to...

vikki-adam 05.04.2008 · Read review
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Review of Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree (Wii)

*FAME ACADEMY 2*

Advantages: entertaining to watch.
Disadvantages: none!

...It's back! The no.1 show that had the nation gripping with excitement last year is back for a second time. Fame Academy 2 includes 12 new contestants, new and improved judges and of course the lovely Cat Deely! THE PRESENTERS -------------- Cat Deely Patrick Kielty THE TEACHERS ------------ Richard Park - Head Teacher Carrie Grant - Vocal Coach David Grant - Vocal Coach John McLaughlin - Songwriting tutor Jo Noel-Hartley - Music Teacher Kevin Addams - Choreography Jeremy Milnes - Students Personal Tutor THE STUDENTS ------------ Alex Parks Alistair Griffin Audley Anderson Barry McKeever Carolynne Good James Fox Gary Phelan Lorna Grant Louise Griffiths Nick Hall Paris Campbell-Edwards Peter Brame Simone Stewart Alex ----- Alex is a big fan of Sinead O?Connor, Sting and Annie Lennox, and has...

Gareth113 31.08.2003 · Read review
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Review of Fame Academy - BBC1

Combat Academy

Advantages: Pure 80's teenage pulp
Disadvantages: Distinctly dodgey editing and acting at times

...Again this was a film that I bought to try to recapture some of my youth (unsuccessfully I may add) as it was one that I watched several times as an impressionable kid in the 80's. To be perfectly frank the film is pretty terrible, it's badly written, badly filmed, some of the acting is definitely suspect and it was far too far similar to other films released about the same era. Mind you when the film has the same director as the more well known Police Academy series, then this probably isn't that surprising. That all said I do genuinely believe this film has a charm and even an innocence that many of the other 80's brat pack high school type movies failed to capture. Max Mendelsson is the smart talking wise-guy who along with his geek side-kick Perry Barnett terrorises his high school and his town with a long series of practical...

etala 13.07.2006 · Read review
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Review of Combat Academy (DVD)

Smashing Multiplayer Apes in Ape Academy

Advantages: A fantastic multiplayer mode on one PSP, and the addictingly good mini games.
Disadvantages: Game play becomes fairly difficult and the graphics aren't the best, but what do you expect

...Ape Academy is a fantastic game, but it?s not really a game its more a collection of games. Ape Academy includes 50 "madcap monkey mini games", including some that can be played in a multiplayer mode on just one PSP. The games that are included are really addictive, and if you have only one PSP but loads of mates you can play games such as Monkey Football and Monkey bowling together. My personal favourite game is the shortest; the 1m dash. It?s really funny, but also amazingly simple to play. The idea of the 1m dash is to press the buttons as quickly as possible to win the race. Ok, this isn?t you average game, so whilst the sound effects are brilliant, the graphics are poor, but there not meant to be great. The graphics are Ok and work in the cartoony game play. As well as a fantastic multiplayer mode there is also the option...

WoodMyster 04.06.2009 · Read review
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Review of Ape Academy (PSP)