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Boost your IQ with Nintendo's Big Brain Academy

Concentrate! More details on the second of Nintendo's mental training games emerge

Boost your IQ with Nintendo's <i>Big Brain Academy</i>
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DS
| Big Brain Academy

While Pocket Gamer staff continue to benefit from our daily work out with Nintendo's Prof Kawashima's Brain Training game (just check out our current brain chart), Nintendo also wants to get creative on our intellects with the Big Brain Academy.

Similar in scope to the Professor's schooling but somewhat less hardcore, the Big Brain Academy splits its mini-games (or Activities) into five categories – thinking, memory tasks, computation, analysis and identification.

Examples of the sort of tasks you'll be doing are finding matching pairs, counting blocks, guessing which objects weigh the most, and building up complex shapes from simple blocks.

After working your way through quick tests – each takes about a minute – the game works out how much your brain 'weighs', as well as advising you on areas of weakness where you might exercise to improve. Big Brain Academy also compares your brain to famous figures from history.

As you can see from the screenshots above, Big Brain Academy takes a more colourful approach than Brain Training and promises to be a bit more of a gamey experience. There's also a multiplayer mode, where up to eight brains can compete to see which is the heaviest, using one game cartridge (you'll each have to have a DS of course).

Still without a UK release date, don't expect to be expanding your thinking muscle in the Big Brain Academy before the summer.

Jon Jordan
Jon Jordan
A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon can turn his hand to anything except hand turning. He is editor-at-large at PG.biz which means he can arrive anywhere in the world, acting like a slightly confused uncle looking for the way out. He likes letters, cameras, imaginary numbers and legumes.