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

The Art of Death

Advantages: Good second half, some interesting details
Disadvantages: Clunky plot, a bit meandering

...halfway through it was much better. The main character is Adelia - "The Mistress of the Art of Death" - i.e a forensic pathologist. Her struggle to conceal her profession is quite prominent in the plot as female doctors were unusual in the twelfth century. She is helping Simon of Naples discover the killer through the clues left on the bodies of the victims. I found this quite interesting although I'm not sure how realistic it would be in the twelfth century. The plot does wander a bit as it is so concerned with Adelia and her origins and training. The character of Rowley (the King's so-called tax inspector) is ok but the romance seems to have been thrown in as a bit of an afterthought and didn't add anything to the story for me. Mansur and Gyltha offered some light relief as the servants as did Gyltha's grandson Ulf. Simon of Naples was...

mogdred1 27.01.2009 · Read review
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Review of Mistress of the Art of Death - Ariana Franklin

Art Attack?

Advantages: Keeps the action going.
Disadvantages: Unoriginal, poor performances.

...74. Kickboxer 3: The Art of War (1992) This all feels a little like déjà vu, especially after watching American Ninja 3. Once again there is a fighting tournament in a tropical location. This time Rio De Janeiro. An American kickboxing champion, David Sloan, arrives with his sensei, Xian, in tow. On first sight Xian looked a little like Lee Van Cleef, or maybe that was the spectre of 1984 TV series Master Ninja repeating on me. Either way, it helps signify that this was the tale end of a long running era of budget American martial arts films and television shows. The first classic cliché comes quickly when the hapless heroes are mugged by a small Brazilian boy, Marcos, and his sister, Isabella. Naturally, after a long chase through the back alleys of Rio and the kicking of same random thugs, they befriend the knife wielding...

ThePolarOne 10.12.2008 · Read review
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Review of Kickboxer 3 - The Art Of War (DVD)

The Art (Of Forgetting A Clothes Peg)

Advantages: Centrally placed with reasonable room rates. Nice staff. Well furnished
Disadvantages: Area never totally quiet - get a room at the back. No immediately obvious disabled facilities

...When I wrote about my experiences in Lisbon a few months back, I was taken to task for spending too much time describing the hotel, so this time, things are going to be a little different. With a distinct sense of trepidation I'm going to write about a hotel as a stand-alone item for the first time ever, quaking at the thought of my opinion being compared to one by Ciao's very own 'unpaid hotel inspector', Uncle Bill's nephew himself, Richada! I've just got back from 5 very enjoyable nights in Athens (and the days weren't bad either!). Part of what made it enjoyable was our stay at The Art Hotel, Marni Street 27, Athens. To be honest, it would be difficult to describe how to get there from the airport as we'd pre-booked a taxi, which ended up stuck in horrendous Monday night traffic, made worse by an obliging perfectly...

BNibbles 28.10.2007 (30.11.2007) · Read review
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Review of Art Hotel, Athens

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)

Arty Des Arts!

Advantages: Original building, nice and clean and decent rooms
Disadvantages: Could have quirkier rooms to match the rest of the hotel.

...perceived it from stood outside. Inside was a mix of modern touches such as the small lobby lounge with a flat screen pc for guests to use mixed in with the artistic and very Parisian style furniture and the art that hung on nearly every wall. I actually if I'm honest couldn't decide if I liked it or not as I did because it was boutique and intimate and at the same time some of the decor was too 'old fashioned' looking for my taste. However I think if you came to this hotel you wouldn't be disgusted by it and as you don't recoil in horror when you check in to a hotel that that has to be a good thing! The rooms: I would say I expected the rooms to be different after the decor of the hotel in the lobby and I guess it was because they seemed a little boring somehow - the lobby area had nice chairs and lots of art along with flowers...

frankiecesca 19.12.2008 (18.12.2008) · Read review
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Review of Hotel des Arts Montmartre, Paris