Big Brain Academy - Final Play

I can see some merit to the argument that Big Brain Academy and other similar games keep your mind sharp. Being able to quickly and accurately perform mathematical calculations is undoubtedly useful in practical terms, for example. Big Brain Academy challenges the player to perform these mental exercises accurately under time constraints. By practising at each activity, performance will improve. One could argue that practising these activities will only make you better at those same activities, rather than make an impact on how well your brain is able to complete similar analytical tasks. To me the activities in Big Brain Activity all seem to be based upon ways in which our brain functions, so I think the benefits of a game like this are similar to playing puzzle games like Sudoku or Tetris. The benefits aren’t readily seen, but they are there.

A few months ago, I took my parents out to the cinema. I brought my DS Lite to play because we arrived early. I was playing Brain Training. When my mother saw me playing this game, she was very curious. She asked me what it was, so I showed her what the game was like, and I explained the concept to her. She became very excited and said, “Wow, this is a really good game!” She seemed to approve of a game that was also educational in some way. I let her try it, and she enjoyed it. She poked my father and told him that my game was really good and that he should get it to keep his mind sharp. I told her that Big Brain Academy was a similar game, and it had even more minigames in the same vein as Brain Training. She was very positive about this, and expressed some interest. A few weeks later, she asked me for more details about my DS Lite and what it could do. She then announced that she wanted a DS Lite. In fact, she said she wanted a DS Lite for her birthday, as well as Brain Training and Big Brain Academy.

This sort of behaviour is highly unusual for my mother. She has never understood why an adult woman (me) would continue to play videogames. She has always been of the opinion that videogames are for children, and that they should be outgrown. No matter how many times I tell her that there are videogames with mature storylines made for adults, and that a substantial percentage of adults my age play videogames, the information never sinks in. To have her express interest in playing a videogame, much less owning a console feels like a breakthrough. Having said that, I think that she will be limiting herself to puzzle games and brain training games.

Big Brain Academy is a good game, and can be addictive as the player tries to beat their old scores for a bigger brain weight. In this way, it is similar to the old school arcade games, where having the highest score was your goal. I wouldn’t say that this is strictly my type of game, as I tend to lose interest in puzzle games fairly quickly. However, this is the perfect game to play when I don’t have a lot of time to spare, but need something to fill the minutes.