Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain

Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain is a puzzle game meant to strengthen your thinking skills in five different categories through fast-paced minigames. You can compete against friends or test your skills against other people's recorded attempts. It's a simple premise that succeeds thanks to adorable presentation and addicting mechanics, even if it's a little feature-light.

Brain vs Brain is a very welcome return to a long-forgotten series. While it doesn’t offer anything quite so new besides new mini games and a strong multiplayer mode, it’s absolutely difficult to put down and full of challenging fun.

For as simple as the challenges seem, the stakes sure feel high when you’re racing to get the most points and every wrong answer feels like a tragedy. I didn’t expect to get this swept up in Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain, but it has become an honest-to-goodness competition in our household. These are the bragging rights to end all bragging rights.

Depending on how much you enjoy pushing yourself, the fun of Big Brain Academy may wear thin relatively quickly for solo players, but if you're in a situation where you can play with others locally – like quarantining at home with your spouse and kids for nearly a full two years now – Big Brain Academy is an absolute must-buy. [Issue #58 – March/April 2022, p. 76]

Featuring an excellent selection of minigames and very well implemented controls, this new chapter in the Big Brain series is more than welcome to the Nintendo Switch, where it will certainly help with fun multiplayer sessions, whether locally or online.

I can imagine countless real-life situations where the skills acquired in this game would really help or at least make your life easier. Your brain is at stake here - you carry it everywhere you go (I guess) and use it every day! In the end, I can only applaud Nintendo again for managing to make something creative and fun from the simplest ideas, and in this case, actually useful.

With an extremely well-polished repertoire of challenges and a stellar asynchronous multiplayer component, Brain vs. Brain makes for quite the return on Nintendo Switch to the Big Brain Academy, and at an enticing price point.

Any time is big brain time with Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain. A welcome return to an unabashedly casual puzzle franchise, Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain provides addictingly simple multiplayer fun that players of all ages will struggle to put down. If you’ve ever been told that video games melt your brain, hand that joykill a joycon and challenge them to Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain — they’ll soon see the error of their ways.

Probably the best Brain Training game with well made and addictive exercises and a very fun multiplayer mode.

With plenty of small costume unlocks and new sayings to collect, Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain does have small hooks to make sure people come back day after day. I do however think the small number of minigames may be disappointing to some and I hope that maybe with a future update we see more added. I also noticed when I was going against others online nearly everyone was from Japan which makes me think there isn’t a huge audience for this game yet. I think locally this game would be a better time, especially with kids in the household (even though I was addicted to beating others online) as I think kids are likely going to get the most out of this. The big takeaway I had other than a fun game that I enjoyed playing was that I am bad at math and I didn’t need a videogame to know that.

Very small issues aside, there’s just such a genuine charm oozing out of Brain vs Brain, thanks to a charming exterior, fun solo play and addictive multiplayer mode, making Big Brain Academy: Brain vs Brain one of the best puzzle experiences available on Switch. Regardless of any issues the mismatched control levelling causes, for casual gamers and those who want a pick-up-and-play puzzler are a fine example of how to breathe life back into an aged and forgotten game series.

Big Brain Academy: Brain Vs Brain is a great pick up and play title. I found myself becoming addicted to trying to do better each time I sat down. The new addition of multiplayer is very welcome. Allowing each user to select the starting difficulty made this a fun game to play with my very non-competitive wife. If mind games are something you enjoy, or if you’ve played a Brain Academy or Brain Age title this would be a good addition to your Switch line up.

Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain is evidence that there's still room in Nintendo's world for this series. I would have liked to see more than 20 mini-games and certainly would have liked to see more new ones, but what's on display serves as a fun refresher for veterans and a strong introduction to newcomers. The ghost system is a great feature, as is the ability to take on a friend with touch controls.

Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain is a fun way to exercise your mind, with short and sweet activities presented in a cute and cartoony way. It plays similarly to previous entries, but it’s still enjoyable, especially for new audiences. Or even if you’ve just missed Dr. Lobe’s style of brain training.

Big Brain Academy: Brain vs Brain is a fun brain teaser game with a great multiplayer section. A great option for the end of the year parties.

If you’re looking for something the whole family can play, Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain is a great option. It might lack some visual flair but it’s an entertaining way to test the old grey matter with the fun easily enhanced by playing alongside others.

Overall, Brain vs Brain is exactly what you’d expect of Big Brain Academy on the Nintendo Switch. It doesn’t feel like it has changed all that much in 14 years, but maybe it didn’t need to. It’s the most gamified title in this genre, and to mess with it too much might have diminished the appeal, but it’s a little disappointing that a decade and a half of studying leads to the same B+ grade.

This new installment in the Big Brain Academy franchise delivers what it promises: to give fun to all types of players. Although we miss more new content, it is a game worth playing.

Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain is fun and shines in multiplayer, but it's very limited for single player gamers.

The gameplay is so simple and effective that you can drop in for short bursts without having to worry about long load times or system updates like you do on bigger console games. Well worth a look if you like to test your mental mettle.

Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain is a splendid puzzle game that suffers from a certain repetitiveness and finds its reason for existence in the race for the highest score. I'd definitely recommend it to gamers with a family who loves the idea of using video games to spend a few evenings playing together.

It’s a bit of a surprise this late in the year, but what a tremendous time Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain is.

Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain is the type of game that Nintendo does better than any other developer in the industry. This is a game that has clearly been designed with families in mind, and it's the perfect way to play together, while also taking in something educational.

Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain is a fun little romp which doesn’t have ideas above its station and presents its brain-teasers in a more lighthearted, rowdier manner than Dr. Kawashima's friendly but sterile style. This isn’t the kind of marriage between gameplay and (for lack of a better term) ‘work’ that you’ll find in Ring Fit Adventure, but it’s a greatly enjoyable and budget-friendly way to keep up the little pitter-patter of grey matter for all ages.

The reality is that Big Brain Academy: Brain Vs. Brain will fulfill the task of offering a gaming experience focused on mental abilities. There is a lot of challenges, no doubt about it, but the progression of the difficulty of the exercises has a random design. It doesn't compare with its predecessors, but that doesn't mean that it's not a good offer.

Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain is a fun way to exercise your brain regularly. The competition aspect keeps the game fun and engaging if the single player isn’t up to snuff.

This is exactly what you want from a brain game and the multiplayer element adds a nice touch of excitement. However, that excitement is quickly lost once you blast through the lack of overall content in the game.

On one hand, I wish Big Brain Academy spent the past decade focusing on all of its game design lobes, but on the other, the focused and relatively meager assortment are enjoyable in the proper context. I won’t find the nigh-endless Sudoku comfort of Brain Age games or the nuanced breadth of a full party game here, but the end result is still welcome and enjoyable. Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain might not be the 2021 valedictorian on Switch, but it certainly earns its passing grade.

Many years after the franchise's debut, Big Brain Academy returns to the scene with an episode that has little new.

Big Brain Academy games ride the line between entertainment and training. You’ll churn through the content being offered in an hour, but that’s by design. A proper playthrough of this game is stretched over several months, with you improving slightly every day. Although I can’t imagine extensive research would teach you anything really new. Even a couple hours with these challenges would be enough to illuminate your weak points. Such is the central tenet here. If you’re looking for a gaming experience, you’ll be disappointed. But if you want to train that brain of yours, that’s a different story. These tools and tasks take on a whole new purpose then, one with practical ends. I’m not sure you’ll enjoy your time with Big Brain Academy: Brain vs Brain. But I’m certain your time playing the game will be well spent.