Like its predecessor, Big Brain Academy boasts a collection of activities which are designed to put your brain through its paces. However, its approach and appearance are quite different to that of Brain Training. We know it's a different game; however we can't help but draw comparison.

Let's start with the appearance: graphics are bold, colourful and cartoonish. Instead of a disembodied head for a mentor, we have a vaguely humanoid doodle by the name of Dr Lobe, whose task it is to guide you through the activities, pass witty, encouraging comments throughout, and announce your results at the end. These are displayed on a web-like graph which clearly shows the areas requiring attention.

There are three game modes available: Test, Practice, and Versus. The test is composed of five different activities – one from each of the categories (logic, memory, reasoning, mathematic, visual). Depending on how well you scored, you will be told how heavy your brain is - as opposed to its age, and given a letter grade. Apparently, the average brain weighs in at 1,400 grams, and anything less than 750 grams represents a sorely under-utilised lump of grey matter. To cap off your test results, Dr Lobe will also suggest a suitable occupation for someone with your brain type/weight (this part is definitely tongue-in-cheek). These results are stored on your profile, so when you next take the test you will be able to see where you have improved.

Practice mode is where you go to work on individual activities at your own pace. Thankfully, none of these require voice input, which was one of the drawbacks of Brain Training. Instead, the game is controlled solely via the touch screen and stylus. As mentioned earlier there are five broad categories in which to hone your skills, and within each of these categories are three different activities. Throw in three difficulty levels for each activity and you have a reasonable degree of replay value, although nowhere near the same extent as Brain Training.

The activities themselves are varied and generally entertaining – some more so than others, and they do force you to engage those brain cells. We found a couple of the activities difficult to grasp at first, however with repeated practice were able to achieve a passable result. Results are displayed as brain weight and percentage of questions missed or correct. Dr Lobe dishes out gold, silver and bronze medals if the score warrants recognition, and you can replay any activity to strive for a better result.

In Versus mode you can challenge up to seven other DS owners, either with DS Download Play using one game card, or over DS Wireless Play using multiple cards. In this mode the aim is to be the first player to reach a goal brain weight, with points (grams) being awarded for correct answers.

Whereas Brain Training is a genuine tool for keeping your mind in shape when used on a daily basis, Big Brain Academy is more a collection of fun activities that you might pick up and play from time to time. Once the novelty has worn off, there is no real incentive to play regularly. Having said that, the activities are pretty much timeless; therefore they have a long shelf life, which means you could play it again a year down the track. Combine this with the game's modest price tag and Big Brain Academy represents excellent value for money.