Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain review: Fun and competitive brainteasers

Title: Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Platforms: Nintendo Switch (reviewed on)
Release Date: December 3, 2021

I’ve always had a love of games that “test your brain.” The science is a little shaky, sure, but I’ve always enjoyed puzzles and feats of mental whatnot, especially as I can pass a test in two minutes but sure as hell can’t run for that long. So when I was offered a chance to review the newest Big Brain Academy game for Nintendo Switch, titled Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain, I jumped at it faster than an electrical signal through a neuron.

Big Brain Academy holds a different format than a lot of similar titles, like Brain Age, because of the variety of puzzles it utilizes instead of focusing heavily on math. It requires quick thinking, logic, and the ability to mentally play a game that I call “fruit versus plane”. This particular puzzle got a screenshot because I hated it so much. In this case, I picked “pineapple” counting three smallest to largest when it was actually the “apple” because, oh my god Eric read.

But this newest game is called “Brain vs. Brain,” so what does that mean for the series? It means that this game is actually competitive. You create your own little avatar and instead of a user name, you enter your age and what you do for a living. At first, I thought this was going to be embarrassing and I was going to feel like an old man in the game. That was until I encountered a slew of players between the ages of 40 to 60. How do you do, fellow kids?

My main problem with this game – – which is barely a problem, really — is that the people you’re playing against are ghosts. When you take the single-player test, the game, on the sly, records your every move. And when you play against other people, you’re playing against their recordings.

At first, I was kind of annoyed by this. But I learned to love it for two reasons. One, they’re not playing competitively. It’s not people tripping over themselves to pick an option first.

And secondly, you’re not waiting in lobbies. It happens fast. Plus, and this will probably sound crazy, having the users display age and profession along with what they choose to wear gives the other players so much more personality than some strangely spelled inside joke of a user name.

Content-wise, however, the game lacks a bit. It was my second day of playing that I unlocked all the various catchphrases as well as the extra game modes. By the third day, I had unlocked and played all there was to see and do in the game. It’s definitely fun for a time but for thirty dollars, time will tell how worthwhile the purchase is with such bare-bones content.

The graphics are cute and bright, and it’s impossible to get confused when answering in a rush. The controls are solid, although touchscreen players are going to be at a huge advantage as one tap does the job of several button presses depending on the game.

Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain (Nintendo Switch) Score: 7.5

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.

A copy of this game was provided to App Trigger for the purpose of this review. All scores are ranked out of 10, with .5 increments. Click here to learn more about our Review Policy.