Babysitting Mania
SCORE: 65
Majesco Entertainment has been a safe best for families most of the time. The WMG purchased Babysitting Mama on the Nintendo DS expecting it to be the next big thing. Everything about this game on paper looks great. But if we wrote reviews without playing it we would be just like the ESRB. Babysitting Mania is a time management game where the player takes on the role of house cleaner, child wrangler, and baby watcher. Yes I could have used babysitter there, but it was not creative enough.
The graphics in Babysitting Mania are small. The details are decent and generally players can understand what items are. There are some items on the floor that were hard to differentiate. Is it clothing or trash? The poor babysitter is run ragged in Babysitting Mania on the Nintendo DS. Toddler age children run around and mess up whatever they touch. This is not a very nice commentary on children. And could be considered offensive to many families.
Babysitting Mania can get annoying in the sounds department as well. Nothing like a baby crying to wake up the player. This is nothing like real babysitting. In fact Babysitting Mania is the farthest from the truth there is. The music and special effect sounds are adequate, and do enhance this hand held video game in some nice ways.
There are one hundred levels in twenty different homes. Babysitting Mania takes some time to beat. The WMG also found that an entire string of levels need to be completed, or they have to be replayed. This takes away from the pick up and play concept. It also means Babysitting Mania can not be played for a few minutes and put back down. Due to some other issues the WMG feels like money was wasted on Babysitting Mania for the Nintendo DS.
Do you remember that part in The Incredibles when Mr. Incredible says: “I just cleaned up this mess! Can we keep it clean for... for ten minutes!” That is exactly how the game play feels in Babysitting Mania. In any given level items that were clean can get dirty again. This game is sadistic in that regard. It also is entirely no fun to play. There is always something to clean up, or a child to wrangled into bed. The baby also is pretty needy.
The lesson in
Babysitting Mania is that children are mess makers. It also shows that
parents run off to do things and leave their children to be taken care
of by others. Babysitting Mania does nothing to support family values.
In fact it diminishes them. Children are a wonderful blessing from God.
Even the most difficult child has their shining moments. Ask any real
parent. Babysitting Mania was a chore to review. This franchise needs to
retire into the history of video games. Experiment tried and ultimately
failed.
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Working Man Gamer
Graphics: 65%
Sound: 70%
Replay/Extras: 70%
Gameplay: 58%
Family Friendly Factor: 62%
System: Nintendo DS
Publisher: Majesco Entertainment
Rating: ‘E’ for Everyone
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