I can just imagine the reaction from my boys if I pulled out workbooks or anything school related this time of year. And yet they are thrilled with one of our new Wii games. Big Brain Academy, Wii Degree is all about exercising your brain and training it to work faster.
The “Academy” tests your thinking skills in five categories, Visualize, Analyze, Memorize, Identify, and Compute. Each of the categories have three games. The graphics are cute and playful, and the games are short. Maybe that is partly why the games don’t feel like work. Some of the games even seem very silly. How can whacking a mole with different shapes on its head be work or learning? The answer is that your brain is having to quickly decipher those shapes in the incredibly short time you have to recognize the shape and react.
In other games you slowly watch a picture revealed. The sooner you can guess accurately what the picture is the better score you receive. In another you memorize shapes in reverse order. In Species Spotlight you shine a light in a box and determine which of the three animals has more than the others. Balloon Burst has the player popping balloons with their numbers on them. You pop from lowest to highest. As an extra challenge the balloons are moving and turning.
The player can take a test of the fifteen games to determine to the size of his or her brain. Or the player can practice on any one of the games. After finishing the test, or the practice games, results are analyzed for progress and accuracy. Speed of response counts, as does correct answers. The game sets a next goal of brain size to strive for and if the player has done well may give a medal.
This is my kind of game. Smart counts and brain growth is encouraged! And it’s fun. Plus it doesn’t hurt that the kids are very impressed with the size of my brain.
More on the Wii and Computer Games: