Mensa Academy to train your brain on XBLA
The recent appearance of Mensa Academy (purportedly American Mensa Academy in North America) on the Xbox Live Marketplace seems to indicate the title is finally ready to put your mind to the test on Xbox Live Arcade. Announced early this year, Mensa Academy was subsequently released on a variety of platforms: mobile, PC and Nintendo’s Wii and 3DS over the summer, with publisher Square Enix promising it would bring the title to HD consoles “in the near future.” Though no official word on a release date has been made, it seems Square Enix will finally make good on that promise — or still plans to, anyway.
What exactly is Mensa Academy? Mensa is a worldwide organisation for people with an IQ in the top two percent of the population. Though results vary depending on which test is taken, that equates to an IQ of approximately 130 to 140 — by comparison, average intelligence accumulates around 100. Mensa directly collaborated with the development team regarding the many questions and puzzles designed to challenge the mind and condition the brain, and stands behind the potency of that claim — hence the brand name.
While little information has surfaced regarding the features or content slated for the XBLA adaptation, other console versions contain over a hundred levels of play in a variety of disciplines. In addition, there’s a coaching mode designed to rate your progress and improvement as you make your eventual way to the test, where you’ll be issued a Mensa Academy score. You’ll also be able to challenge up to four players in online co-operative brain battles and see how you size up to the competition thanks to online leaderboards.