Think you and your family have the smarts to be known as Britain's Brainiest Family? If so, then your family should consider entering this Nintendo-sponsored contest of sheer brain and wits, and start practicing your collective brains on Big Brain Academy for the Wii and DS.

Prizes up for grabs are university tuition fees for the kids, seven-night family outings courtesy of Thomas Cook, and Wii units bundled with copies of the Big Brain Academy games.

If you're interesting in joining, just go to any nearest participating store and sign up at the Nintendo stage, where you and your family will go head to head with other families for the coveted title. Of course, you need to be a British resident to be able to participate.

What's the best part? Contestants will get a chance to will a cool Chrysler Grand Voyager Executive XS, and all you need to do is to have your brain weighed to fill an entry form. See you there!

Check out the Read link for more details!

Good news for Nintendo DS owners, as two good DS games have finally gone on sale over at retail store Circuit City. Now going for an affordable US$ 13.99, it won't hurt so much now to give away Cooking Mama and Big Brain Academy as presents for someone whose birthday is coming up, or for your little brother who has been asking for them for months now. So, for less than twenty dollars including shipping, go ahead and make a friend happy, and get them another game for their DS.

Cooking Mama is an adorably cute cooking simulation game that was published by Majesco Entertainment and released in the U.S. in September last year. Meanwhile, Big Brain Academy is a game that falls under the edutainment category. It was developed by Nintendo and released in June last year. The game tests the player's capacity when it comes to logic, memorization, analysis, computation, and visual identification.

We got word from badam that Nintendo's DS Download Station website has been updated and now shows a "Series 1 Line-Up" and "Series 2 Line-Up". For you curious folks out there, the two-series breakdown is not really a mystery. It just means that if you want to download certain games, you'd have to go to appropriate participating game stores.

The Series 1 Line-Up includes Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day!, Mario Kart DS, True Swing Golf, Tetris DS, Meteos, Metroid Prime Hunters Movies, and Pokemon Trozei. These titles are available for download exclusively at Target stores.

The Series Two Line-Up is available at GameStop, Game Crazy, and Best Buy stores. Titles in this line-up includes Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day!, Magnetica, Over the Hedge Movie. Tetris DS, X-Men: The Official Game Movie, Metroid Prime Hunters, and Big Brain Academy. These titles will also be available at Wal-Mart and Toys 'R' Us stores.

Big Brain Academy, which has already sold a mind-blowing 1.2 million copies in Japan, is available in Europe starting today. The game is designed to test the limits of the organ encased inside your skull with tasks that involve Thinking, Memorizing, Analyzing, Computing, and Identifying. Each category is split into three sub-categories consisting of 15 types of addictively fun and wacky exercises designed to taunt the different parts of your brain.

Players can even create their own individual profile in Big Brain Academy, allowing them to keep track of their progress in all of the different types of tests. In Big Brain Academy, you need speed and accuracy as each challenge requires you to answer questions in a particular category in just 60 seconds.

If you ever been involved in a heated debate as to who is the smartest one in your family or among your friends, Big Brain Academy can help settle that with its multiplayer mode. All 15 tests can be attempted in wireless Versus mode, with up to seven players with only one copy of the game via the DS Download play.

Big Brain Academy retails for about £29.99 (about $55). Small price to pay to have your brain tuned up!

With summer almost here, most people are now starting to get preoccupied with either looking for summer jobs or planning their summer vacations. But dedicated gamers are of a different sort - waiting for games to be released these coming days is their main business (or sometimes, folly).
Here's a list of games for release from June 5 to 9 this week. I wonder which ones I'll be able to grab...


JUNE 5, 2006

AMF Xtreme Bowling (PS2, Xbox)
MLB SlugFest 2006 (PS2, Xbox)
Origin of the Species (PC)
Magnetica (DS)
IHRA Drag Racing: Sportsman Edition (PS2, PC)
Dark and Light (PC)
Big Brain Academy (DS)


JUNE 6, 2006

Cars (PS2, Xbox, GC, DS, GBA, PSP, PC)
WWII Combat: Iwo Jima (Xbox, PC)
Gradius Collection (PSP)
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (PS2)
Jaws Unleashed (PC)
Backyard Baseball 2007 (GBA)
Dragon Ball: Advance Adventure (GBA)
The Movies: Stunts & Effects (PC)
Race Driver 2006 (PSP)
Mumbo Jumbo Puzzle Pack (PC)
And 1 Streetball (PS2, Xbox)
Ultra Sudoku & Ultra Kakuro (PC)


JUNE 7, 2006

Moscow to Berlin: Red Siege (PC)
SuDoku & KaKuro Collector's Edition (PC)
Deep Sea Tycoon: Diver's Paradise (PC)


JUNE 9, 2006

Scurge: Hive (DS, GBA)
Juka and the Monophonic Menace (GBA)

Big Brain Academy is the follow up to Brain Age in Nintendo's brain training series. Big Brain Academy functions as a stress reliever application for the DS and features 15 activities that test your brain powers in areas like logic, memory, math and analysis. You will be able to free your mind by working through a number of simple yet deep problems. There are five different types of challenges. The game is playable by all ages, with only one cartridge needed for eight players and each activity takes less than a minute to complete. Another cool feature in the game is versus mode throws out tests for eight players, requiring only one game pack. The game comes out June 5th so we have some screenshots to hold you over until then.

     
    

Big Brain Academy has been developed by Nintendo Software Technology Corp, the ones who brought you Wave Race 64 and Metroid Prime: Hunters. It's a game that goes hand-in-hand with Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day. While Brain Age tests your brain's age, Big Brain Academy tests your brain's "weight." To do this, you can do a variety of minigames, each which takes less than a minute to complete. These activities will test you in the areas of thinking, memorization, computation, analysis, and identification. The game will then tell you the "weight" of the brain as well as what your strengths and weaknesses are. The game also has a multiplayer mode in which you and friends can compete to see who has the "biggest" brain.

When you start the game, you will be given a series of tests to complete. You will then be given an initial brain weight as well as a letter grade. Along with this, you will be shown a famous person who has a similar brain size. Your goal is to increase your brain "weight" gradually. You are also allowed to play activities in the Practice Mode. You can earn bronze, silver, and gold medals in the Practice Mode so that you have a 100% goal to strive for. There will be 15 activities in the game. Nintendo has unveiled a few:

Think:

• Heavyweight – Choose which object weighs more – it's not so easy with three different scales.
• Pathfinder – Look at the creature on the top screen and draw a line that will lead him to his friend.

Memorize:

• Sound Bites – Carefully listen to people and animals as they make noise, then try to touch them in the correct order.
• Memo-Random – Examine the panels on the top row, then touch the correct one when the panel is replaced by a question mark.

Analyze:

• Missing Link – Look at the red line in the picture on the top screen and draw it into the picture on the touch screen. Watch out! Some pictures will be inverted.
• CubeGame – Count the blocks, being careful not to forget the ones hiding at the bottom of the stack.
  

Compute:

• Coin-parison – Choose the panel with the greater amount of money.
• Written Math – Read the problems in word form, then solve them by tapping the number pad on the Touch Screen.
  

Identify:

• Shadow Shift – Tap the images on the Touch Screen that match the spinning shadows on the top screen.
• Matchmaker – Look through a number of colorful panels to find the matching pair.

It's interesting to see how these games will pan out. In Japan, they've sold millions and locked up the sales chart. However, North America is a completely different market. Although we've warmed up to Nintendogs, who knows what else we'll like? Then again, seeing as this is an educational game, maybe millions of kids will get their parents to buy them to "help them with school" =)

   

The above are the latest screens from Nintendo's Big Brain Academy DS, the second in its brain training series. In Big Brain Academy DS, you can "weigh" your brain with the Test mode wherein you will be quizzed in five areas: thinking, memorization, computation, analysis and identification. This will identify the strength and weakness of your brain and you can keep on playing the game to exercise the brain in areas that the test shows needs improvement.

There's also the Practice and the Versus mode. The Practice mode includes individual activities that will let you earn medals. The Versus mode, on the other hand, will appeal to your competitive side. It lets you play against friends or family members. As mentioned, Big Brain Academy DS is set for release by end of May or early June. It will feature 15 Activities - all taking less than a minute to play - that will test your logic, memory, math, and analysis.

Nintendo announced the release of the New Super Mario Bros has been moved back by a week to May 15th. Meanhwile Big Brain Academy DS, the second of Nintendo's brain training series, will be released on June 5th instead of May 30th. In the New Super Mario Bros DS, which takes place in the Mushroom Kingdom, our favorite brothers will have access to all-new power-ups and face new and familiar bad guys. Players can link wirelessly to play as Mario and Luigi in multiplayer mode.

Big Brain Academy DS has 15 activities that test the power of your gray matter in areas like logic, memory, math and analysis. A single game card supports up to eight players and each activity takes less than 60 seconds to complete.