Nintendosure loves minigames.WarioWare: Get it Together!and the whole of theWarioWareseries are a great example of that lovem as Nintendo has built a whole brand for Mario’s nemesis purely off of collections of quirky and gripping minigames. A similar case could be made forMario Party,Nintendo’s cheerful party game series filled with frequent minigames that give advantages to each game’s winner. Even so,Brain Ageand the upcomingBig Brain Academy: Brain vs Brainare unique among Nintendo’s various minigame franchises. If anybody ever needed evidence that Nintendo likes dabbling in educational products, they needn’t look any further thanBrain Age.
Big Brain Academy: Brain vs Brainseems to be a new incarnation of theBrain Agefranchise.Brain Agehistorically delivered fast-paced minigames based on math, memory, and so on, designed to stimulate the brain and overseen byJapanese neuroscientist Dr. Ryuta Kawashima.Brain Ageis still an active franchise, but it hasn’t gotten many installations in recent years.Big Brain Academy: Brain vs Brainpretty clearly seems designed to stimulate new interest in brain-teasing puzzle games, though, and the Switch is a perfect platform to it. Considering the Switch’s accessibility and overwhelming sales, now is a great time for Nintendo to look atBrainAgemore closely and experiment with it again.
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Why a Brain Age Revival Makes Sense
A big part of the reason that now is a great time fora new era ofBrain Agegamesis simply because there’s so many potential customers. The Switch has sold more than 90 million units, which is an overwhelming number that manages to compete even with Nintendo’s titanically successful Wii.Brain Agecan reach more players than ever, soBig Brain Academy’s timing makes sense. The good thing aboutBrain AgeandBig Brain Academyis that they hold widespread appeal. They’re not niche genre games; they’re anthologies of puzzles that anyone of any age can get into. The Switch’s wide user base ranging from casual games to Nintendo die-hards could all be willing to tryBig Brain Academy.
It just so happens that the Switch is a great console forBig Brain Academythanks to its physical design. The Switch is excellent at multiplayer thanks toits touch screen and Joy-Cons. TheBig Brain Academytrailer shows the game effortlessly transitioning from singleplayer to 2-player to 4-player. That kind of flexibility is perfect for the Switch, which was designed to be carried around and enjoyed with friends and family at a moment’s notice. That ease of use meansBig Brain Academyand any futureBrain Age-esque games are perfect both as easy to pick up singleplayer titles orMario Party-style multiplayer titles.
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A New Age of Brain Age
There’s one more thing that makesBrainAgeworth revisiting on Switch. In 2019, Nintendo did release aBrain Agegame for the Switch –Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training for Nintendo Switch–but it got mixed reviews and never released in North America, missing out on a crucial market.Big Brain Academysuggests Nintendo is doubling down on its brain training games with a ton of determination to make theBrain Agebrand succeed. It’s clearly not intimidated by the lastBrain Agegame’s reception, which inspires optimism for the franchise’s future.
It seems like educational tools and health games will never stop being a part of Nintendo’s brand, even if they’re only a small part of Nintendo’s total output. For instance, earlier in 2021,Nintendo announcedGame Builder Garage,a highly creative game that’s actually about making games.Game Builder Garagehelps players grasp core concepts in game development and gives them the tools to make some of their own games. This aspect of Nintendo is one reason that it’s so unique; its game development interests are diverse to an incredible degree.Big Brain Academyis only Nintendo’s latest step in a long journey of making games that are off the beaten path.
Big Brain Academy: Brain vs Brainreleases on July 21, 2025 for Nintendo Switch.
