Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain received mixed reviews from critics. It was praised for its presentation, multiplayer, and educational value, with criticism for its limited gameplay offerings as a party game. It has sold over 1.94 million copies by December 2022, making it one of the best-selling games on the Switch.
Gameplay
Four players in the Party mode solving puzzles in the Cubegame Analyze activity.
The gameplay is similar to its predecessor, Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree, with the player attempting to solve puzzles in various minigames. There are twenty different activities across five categories: Identify, Memorize, Analyze, Compute, and Visualize.[2][3] Each category tests a different part of the brain, with most activities based around improving accuracy and reaction time. For most of the categories, four of the three minigames originated from Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree.[4] In the Practice mode, players attempt to solve as many puzzles in the selected minigame as fast as possible within the time limit to earn a high score. As they progress and solve more problems, their class will automatically scale relative to their correct and incorrect answers. There are six classes that determine the difficulty of the exercises: Sprout, Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Elite, and Super Elite.[5][6] At the end of the activity, they are given a “Big Brain Brawn” score by Dr. Lobe based on their performance,[7] with the amount of points per question determined by how fast it was answered and what class the player was in. If the player performed exceptionally well, they can also receive collectable bronze, silver, gold, and platinum medals with up to three stars per activity.[4] Once gold medals are obtained for every activity, Super Practice mode is unlocked, starting the player at a higher class.[8][9] Additionally, the player can take a Test, which combines one minigame from all categories and gradually scales in difficulty.[10] Once a Test is completed, the player is given a Big Brain Brawn score as well as a “Brain Grade”, determining how well they performed and what activity they performed best in.[8] Rankings in the Practice mode can be shared online for use in the Ghost Clash mode. Ghost Clash is an online multiplayer mode where players can compete against the ghost data of other users asynchronously.[11] Players can face against online users with recorded ghost data, and can search for specific Ghost IDs, similar to ghost data and Time Trials in the Mario Kart series. As the user defeats more opponents online, they earn trophies to top the Big Brain World Ranking leaderboard.[7][12]
Up to four people can partake in the multiplayer Party mode, in which they can select their own starting level of difficulty. There are two game modes: Spin the Wheel, where a random activity is selected, and Choose a Category, where the players decide what minigames to play.[7] A set amount of matches are played with the goal being to reach 100 points, and the player with the highest cumulative score is declared the winner.[7] If a player is underperforming compared to others, they can earn lots of points as a comeback bonus before the activity ends. An additional multiplayer tabletop mode has two players face head-to-head using the touchscreen of the Nintendo Switch.[13] After playing any game mode, coins are distributed to the player, with ten coins unlocking cosmetics for their avatar.[14][9] Avatars can be customized using multiple different costumes and titles that can describe their avatar’s profile.[15][16]
Development and promotion
The director of Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain, Kenta Kuba, had not worked on the series prior. He was contacted by the producer Koichi Kawamoto to bring the idea to Nintendo Switch, and directed the game with the idea of providing a fun experience for his child, himself, and his entire family playing together. He was assisted by Tomoaki Yoshinobu, the previous director of the series, and Hideki Fujii, the previous designer. One of the first decisions during the planning phase was bringing back Dr. Lobe, the guide character from the previous two entries, as per request of Yoshinobu. The development team monitored playtests with children to see how they would react, noticing that the children played the minigames significantly slower and reacted to in-game sounds differently. This allowed the development team to adjust the difficulty categories and sound effects to make them suitable for a five-year-old child as well as an experienced gamer. The online mode also used ghost data from players instead of real-time players to reduce the competitive nature of online multiplayer.[17] Prior to its reveal, a survey by Nintendo of America was distributed in June 2021 asking users if they would be interested in buying a brain training game for Nintendo Switch.[18]
Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain was first announced on September 2, 2021, and shared the release date of December 3, 2021 with Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp prior to its multiple delays.[19][20] Commercials for the game were released starring Christina Aguilera,[21] as well a commercial starring Neil Patrick Harris and his family. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Harris described the game as a great fit for his family, stating that filming the commercial didn't require much acting since his favorite scenes involved playing the game with everyone.[22] A demo featuring select activities was released on November 16, 2021.[23] On December 27, 2021, an update added a "Creepy Crawlies" section in the options, removing photos of animals from certain game modes to benefit users with arachnophobia and other animal-related fears.[24] On June 5, 2025, the game was updated with GameShare support for Nintendo Switch 2 systems, as well as allowing up to four players in the Party mode.[25]
Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain received mixed or average reviews according to the review aggregator website Metacritic.[26] According to review aggregator OpenCritic, the game received fair approval from critics.[27] In their summary, Siliconera's Graham Russell stated it "doesn’t try to do too much", but serves as a "refreshing throwback to the Nintendo DS era".[33]
Shaun Musgrave of TouchArcade claimed it to be a lackluster party game, comparing it less favorably than the recently released WarioWare: Get It Together! and Mario Party Superstars in 2021.[14] Writers of CD-Action similarly believed Brain vs. Brain "pales in comparison" to Mario Party Superstars.[34] Conversely, Sergio González of MeriStation considered the title "equally valuable in its educational component" compared to other party games.[12]
Most critics thought the game was light on content and lacked depth, particularly for its single-player offerings.[10][31][30][12] When referring to the minigames, Jess Lee of Digital Spy claimed "the game could have benefitted from having several more for improved variety and replay value".[8] Others believed the content both lacked significant depth and got repetitive over time.[35][36] Neal Ronaghan of Nintendo World Report claimed its Practice mode had a "lack of offline longevity",[11] while Shaun Musgrave of TouchArcade claimed that the twenty minigames included, although fine, were not enough to prevent repetition.[14] Fran G. Matas of Vandal described the single-player experience as stagnant, one that can only played for a few minutes per day.[36] Andrew Webster of The Verge believed it would not be a game they play by themselves often, instead being "more like a board game" that is best played with friends.[37] Many critics praised the Ghost Clash mode, with 3DJuegos claiming it to be the best game mode in their recommendation.[38] Ronaghan stated the mode was an "engaging and replayable way to interact with Big Brain Academy by yourself",[11] whereas Musgrave considered it the most fun mode.[14] Alex Olney of Nintendo Life thought it was unfortunate there was no option for simultaneous online multiplayer, but appreciated the ghost battles for diminishing the issue of online latency.[10] Critics noted that touch controls had a distinct competitive advantage when playing Ghost Clash.[31][9][39] Although the user's method of control is displayed for online rankings, Ozzie Mejia of Shacknews found it irritating they were required to undock their system to fairly compete against others.[13]
Critics believed the difficulty balance was fair, complimenting it for its accessibility regarding a wide age demographic. Alex Olney of Nintendo Life claimed it was "a genuine challenge even for adult players", containing a relatively fair scoring system.[10] Jess Lee of Digital Spy claimed it remained "engaging and competitive" when playing with a variety of age groups,[8] while Jen Allen of NME called its gameplay "smartly designed" for the whole family so no player would be at a significant advantage or disadvantage.[30] Being a budget title compared to other Nintendo releases, most critics believed the game was priced relatively fair, despite claims of lacking content.[10][8][30] Both Digital Trends and Pocket Tactics expressed interest in a mobile version due to its simple user interface and touchscreen support, claiming it would have been better suited as one of Nintendo’s mobile applications as opposed to a Nintendo Switch game.[7][31] Critics believed the game was very similar to its predecessors,[14][13] with some believing it was not taking advantage of the Nintendo Switch’s unique features.[7][39] Giovanni Colantonio of Digital Trends stated "its multiplayer options are shallow compared to the Wii installment", since Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree contained more than one distinct multiplayer mode.[7] Although the contents of Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain were met with mixed opinions, many critics believed the game was a good educational tool for young children and a suitable game for all ages.[8][30][34] Luca Forte of Multiplayer.it claimed the game helps children with "exercising their calculation skills, lateral thinking, and memory".[35] David Martínez of HobbyConsolas claimed it to be a great method for brain training and working under pressure, as well as exercising previously dormant skills.[39] It is considered a great educational game for children on the Nintendo Switch by the parenting journalists at Parents.[40] Kayleigh Partleton of Pocket Tactics considered it one of the best brain training games of all time.[41] The presentation, visuals, and customization for avatars were all met with praise.[10][31][13][35]
Sales
Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain sold 36,928 physical copies in Japan and debuted at the third position on the Famitsu sales charts during its first week.[42] It held a position among the top ten game sales in Japan for eight consecutive weeks,[43] and remained on the Famitsu sales chart for an additional twelve weeks, selling around 301,019 copies total in Japan.[44] The game sold 1.28 million copies worldwide by the end of 2021.[45] It has sold a total of 1.94 million copies as of December 31, 2022, making it one of the best-selling Nintendo Switch games.[46]
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