Wii Warm Up: Training on Wii
by Alisha Karabinus 
{ Jul 28th 2008 at 9:00AM }
Training games have been big on the DS, and a few have made it big on the Wii -- most notably, of course, Wii Fit -- but the lion's share of these "games" have remained on the DS. Big Brain Academy and My Word Coach are a few that have been on both systems. Have you tried them on both? We'd love to hear opinions about training games crossing the gulf, as it were. We're of the opinion that they're better when they're designed specifically for one system, and can thus play to that system's strength, but there are always exceptions.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
samfish @ Jul 28th 2008 10:07AM
Big Brain Academy was a f-cking insult to one's intelligence. The child-like interface and asking mostly 1st grade level questions was rather degrading.
I wish Nintendo would wise up and put Brain Age on the Wii.
My Word Coach wasn't too bad, though.
Tony @ Jul 28th 2008 10:22AM
I really enjoyed Big Brain Academy... though it was unusually hard for visitors to just pick up and play. I would like to see more games like this on the wii, but if a game is available on wii and ds, I would like to see some kind of connectivity between the two.
Timdogg @ Jul 28th 2008 10:23AM
Where are my VC games??? I need to know what is going to be released!
Joel @ Jul 28th 2008 12:17PM
I like the concept of Big Brain Academy. It's fun for a quick play. Yes, some of the tests are childish. Mostly due to the graphics which seems to be based for kids. i will admit that B.B.A. is part of my morning ritual or was. When I first got it over a year ago or so I played it every morning with my morning cup of coffee. As time went on it just got annoying. It's just the graphics. The part when you have to memorize the faces of the kids is so bad. Like many board games they need an Adult Version (no x rated just tests for adults) and a Jr. version for the kids.
Feba @ Jul 28th 2008 2:16PM
I would like to see some serious educational software for Wii; as well as in gaming in general. I'm not expecting my hopes for an educational game to be made, at least not within my lifetime (Basically, imagine GTA. Now take away the chaos, replace it with daily life, and set it in a foreign city. Now you see why I highly doubt this will ever be made); but educational software on game platforms would more than work.
Use the entire disk. Put on educational videos, sound clips, lectures. Heck, maybe work in voice recognition with WiiSpeak ala My * Coach's "compare" feature. Include a Wii Channel with the game, so that I can take daily refresher courses/vocab tests/flash cards without having to mess with the disk (ala Wii Fit). Maybe have the disk replace what lessons are in the Channel based on the progress of the people using it, so it can have many lessons to offer, without taking up a ton of storage space on the Wii.
Brain Age is nice, and Big Brain and My Word Coach aren't bad, but only My Word Coach is anything close to educational. And in all of the advertisements I've seen and the demo I've played, I haven't seen any words I didn't recognize. My English is good, but it's not good enough that I don't have to turn to the dictionary every couple weeks. It's probably aimed towards kids, and there's nothing wrong with that, but I would like to learn too.