No, not in the metaphorical “look at the ego on that guy” kind of way, but just, well, physically. I have a big head. I bet that made life a bit rougher on mom, but she’s (somewhat) forgiven me by now.

It does make shopping for hats more interesting, though.

According to Big Brain Academy, however, my brain size isn’t up to snuff.

Yet.

I’m working on that.

Big Brain Academy is a collection of “intellectual exercise” style games on the Nintendo DS. They’re broken up into five categories, and in three different play groups.

“Practice” mode is the most common one. When you go into it, you’ll see the five categories – Compute, Identify, Think, Memorize, and Analyze. A blue “blob” on a pentagon will give you an idea of where your strengths and weaknesses are. For instance, for me, Analyze is the hardest bit.

When you play the first Analyze games, you have to draw the segments in on a line diagram that are missing (the “Missing Link” game). The “CubeGame” will have you counting cubes. “Animal Lines” will have you tracing patterns.

At the end of each game, you get a score – how many correct, how many missed, a percentage, and a “brain size” in grams. A big brain size will garner you a medal, from bronze to gold (but if you do really well, you might find another one…). If you missed any problems, you’ll be able to go back and try them again.

Each category has three different games with three different difficulty levels (easy, normal, and hard).

Memorize has you memorize “sound bites”, numbers and symbols in “flash memory”, and images in “Memo-random”.

Think has you see which item is the heaviest in “Heavyweight”, find paths for animals to meet up in “Pathfinder”, and help a dog find his bone in “Bone Yard”.

“Shadow Shift” in the Identify category has you identifying shapes by their shadows, even if their spinning or moving. “Get in Shape” has you picking up the pieces of items that make up that item. “Matchmaker” has you find the matches among many cards.

Compute has you calculate coinage in “Coin-parison”, add up the values on cards in “Add Agency”, and read an equation in words to solve it in numbers with “Written Math”.

After you’ve practiced for a while, it’s time to try the test. The test will give you exercises from all five categories, then rate your brain size and give you a score.

Just a hint – you might not want to take the test before practicing at all, lest you’re stuck looking at a bad grade for a long time. That didn’t happen to me, but I did hear tale of it happening to someone I know…

Finally, there’s a Versus mode so you can play against other people you know.

Now, the music is corny in it, and the graphics are cartoony but fine for this game – other than the occasional problem I had in the Missing Link game when tolerances got tight.

One neat thing is Dr. Lobe talking to you based off the time on Nintendo DS – for instance, if it’s late at night, he’ll counsel you on the benefits of sleep, while when I was playing earlier in the evening he asked me about lunch. Fortunately he never yelled at me for drinking wine while playing.

Not that I recommend that. It’s detrimental to your brain size!

All in all, this is one of those great fun games in small doses. Play a couple of quick games – each test only takes 1 minute – then leave it alone.