Nintendo Canada came up with a pretty slick way to promote the Wii and Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree. The game is going to be integrated into the Are you Smarter Than a Canadian 5th Grader next season.

The game itself will be set up at the children's casting call, with its very own zone, allowing kids and their parents to play the game as they wait to audition. The game will also show up in the game show, with the $25,000 question being renamed the Big Brain Academy Question.

The game show will also include other "exciting hallmark features of the game" though the press release doesn't go into any details.

TORONTO, Aug. 14 /CNW/ - As casting and production of Global Television's
"Are You Smarter Than A Canadian 5th Grader?" gets underway for its Fall 2007
debut, a collaborative "dream team" has blazed a new trail in content
integration for promotion of Nintendo's Big Brain Academy(TM): Wii Degree.
The team, including Nintendo of Canada Ltd, Starcom, CanWest MediaWorks,
Insight Productions and Mark Burnett Productions, has created an innovative
package of integration elements. Throughout the five special episodes of "Are
You Smarter Than A Canadian 5th Grader?", fans nationwide will experience a
creative mix of campaign elements including program integration, product
placement, and associative branding, maximizing advertising opportunities
throughout the casting period and during the broadcast.
"Our goal was to find and build on the perfect opportunity for Nintendo
to reach its key demographic to encourage and guide families in the quest to
exercise their brains and smarts," said Shauna Chan, Strategy Director,
Starcom. "We saw 'Are You Smarter Than A Canadian 5th Grader?' as a natural
fit with the Big Brain Academy(TM): Wii Degree and all it's potential to reach
families in that crucial learning and interactive setting."
As presenter of "The Global Television Canadian 5th Grader Kid-Casting",
Nintendo's Big Brain Academy(TM): Wii Degree will showcase a massive presence
at the children's casting, including a Big Brain Academy Zone complete with
on-site Wii(TM) systems from Nintendo to allow kids and parents to interact
with the game in preparation for their auditions.
Throughout the Kid-Casting tour, globaltv.com will provide all of the
excitement of the show online by streaming updates from the Big Brain Academy
Warm Up Zone and providing a behind-the-scenes look at the casting process.
"We were immediately captivated when Starcom shared this strategic
opportunity with us," said Nintendo of Canada vice-president and general
manager, Ron Bertram. "It's been a great experience and we're delighted to
showcase the social, competitive fun that Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree can
offer to Kid-Casting participants, the Grade 5 panellists, and to viewers all
across Canada during the broadcast."
During the broadcast phase of "Are You Smarter Than A Canadian 5th
Grader?", audiences nationwide will be introduced to the Nintendo program
through direct broadcast integration. For example, '5th Grader's' pivotal
$25,000 question will be branded the "Big Brain Academy Question", and the
show will include other exciting hallmark features of the game.
"We are very pleased that all the partners understood the opportunity we
were looking to create and immediately shared the same vision for the
campaign," said Gaye McDonald, Vice President, Marketing Ventures - Brand
Partnership, CanWest MediaWorks. "For CanWest, the real excitement came in the
incredibly collaborative, creative and trusting approach this team took,
allowing us to move very fast out of the gate to make creative and effective
decisions and roll out what we anticipate will be one of the premier campaigns
this year."

• Sign up for My Nintendo
• 
  
• Register Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree
• 
  
• Take a quick survey
• 
  
• Confirm your address so we can send your Wii Remote keychain*

• What's that asterisk about at the end of "Wii Remote keychain*"? Just a small legal matter stating under no circumstances will this keychain wiimote work with the Nintendo Wii. Not that I don't expect to see gutted versions of it with wires poking out of that do work with the Wii in the future. Kim Phu

  Nintendo wants to hear your thoughts on Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree™ [Nintendo]

Some Ninja action this week, a movie franchise game, a race game, a couple of ports and yet another Sims add on. Not a very exciting week all in all, but I'm sure someone, somewhere will enjoy something on this list. Could it be you? Flynn De Marco

• Tenchu Z (X360) Stealth Ninjas invade your 360.
• Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 2 (PS2)
  More Naruto, more ninjas, more fun!
• Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer (X360, PS3, PS2, WII, DS)
  Another sure to be awesome movie franchise game. Because they always are... right?
• Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree (WII)
  Your brain really is in your Wii.
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas (PSP)
  Kill the terrorists that have taken over Vegas...again. This time on the PSP.
• Scarface: The World Is Yours (WII)
  Use your Wii to rule the mob.
• TrackMania United (PC)
  Win the race. Take the trophy.
• The Sims 2: Pets (WII)
  Now you can not only make your Sims pee, you can make their pets pee too.

Just received my copy of Big Brain Academy Wii Degree in the mail. (I'm totally going to school my son in this.) It came with a really cool Rubik's cube that features Nintendo-themes on all six sides. Two of the sides show Wiis, one shows the Big Brain Academy logo, one shows the professor, the top has the Wii logo on each square and the bottom has a big picture of the Wii and a remote. The game also came with a personalizes diploma from the Big Brain Academy awarding me a Wii Degree on June 11. I'll have to add this to my schwag pile for some later give-away. Brian Crecente

It's good to see that someone is getting some use out of the Nintendo World Store.

Next weekend Nintendo will be hosting the Wii Father's Day Challenge at the store. The challenge will pit father-son teams against each other in a little Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree smarts-off.

The afternoon event wil also include some graduation-themed Nintendo giveaways and plenty of hands-on gaming. The event runs Jun 16 (the day before Father's Day) from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the World Store in Rockefeller Plaza.

NINTENDO HOSTS Wii FATHER'S DAY CHALLENGE

Dads and Kids Team Up to Compete at Nintendo World Store in Rockefeller Plaza

WHAT: Nintendo celebrates the release of Big Brain Academy™: Wii Degree with the Father's Day Challenge at the Nintendo World store in Rockefeller Plaza. Dads and kids of all ages will team up for a bracket-style playoff to determine who will take home the honors. Teams will use the new multiplayer features and split-screen views as they "weigh" their brain against their competitors. The top two teams of the 20-team tournament will face off for the title of "Biggest Brain."

Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree, which debuts on June 11, is the Wii™ sequel to the successful Nintendo DS™ title that allows players to exercise their brains in five areas: thinking, memorization, computation, analysis and identification. Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree includes 15 new stimulating activities and features three new multiplayer modes, which allow friendly competition with up to eight different players.

Copies of Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree will be available at the Nintendo World store. Attendees can also receive graduation-themed Nintendo giveaways throughout the day.

WHO: Parents, kids, brainiacs and video game fans of all ages

WHEN: Saturday, June 16 (1 day prior to Father's Day)
Nintendo World store Opens: 8 a.m.
Event: 1 - 5 p.m.

WHERE: Nintendo World store
10 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10020
646-459-0800
www.nintendoworldstore.com

Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree shares plenty with its Nintendo DS ancestor, but transitions to the Wii nicely. The more colorful sibling to Brain Age features a prettier presentation and makes for a surprisingly fun minigame showcase broken up into five categories familiar Big Brain Academy DS fans.

How is it different from the handheld version? The game features Mii integration and allows players to share their Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree scoring data via the WiiConnect24 service. It also takes advantage of the Wii remote in one unique way. Holding the Wii remote like a telephone, players receive take-out orders through the Wii-mote speaker and tick off food items onscreen. Simple, but clever. Much of the rest of the gameplay involves simply pointing to items on the screen.

It's a solid multiplayer game and better than I expected in that regard. Those who have played the DS version to death, however, may find much of it too familiar. Michael McWhertor

As predicted some more details about Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree hit today.

The game will support up to eight players and include 15 new activities in five categories: memory, analysis, number crunching, visual recognition and quick thinking. All of the activities are designed around the Wii Remote. The game will also let players exchange training data wirelessly with other players and compete against their save date. Brian Crecente

I just heard word that Nintendo has gotten around to officially naming Big Brain for the Wii.

The smarty-pants Wii game will be officially titled Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree. Hmm, I wonder if that means you'll be fighting to earn a degree as opposed to increasing your brain weight or brain age?

I expect more news on this sometime this week. Any guesses? Brian Crecente