Time Management and Chaos Meters...Nanny Mania
I've always wondered what it would be like to be an au pair. It's all “Mary Poppins” in this fantasy, and generally doesn't involve dirty laundry or muddy footprints...Nanny Mania is probably more realistic!
You get to be a nanny for the Mayor's family, which starts out with just the newlywed couple and ends up as a busy six member clan. As the levels advance, the family grows and changes, and so do some of your challenges. Babies need feeding and diapering, toddlers knock over books and lamps, children jump on the couch, and teens leave clothes all over the place. Mom and Dad are also a bit sloppy, leaving messy bathrooms and muddy footprints around. Sometimes, they actually expect you to cook. We can be really glad it's not dependant on real life cooking skills, or they'd be eating tuna sandwhiches and pizza bagels...
The whole point of the game is to keep the chaos meter low, which you do by cleaning things up. It's fairly straight forward game play, and perhaps a tad too easy. You do more housework than childcare, so you're more like a maid or an au pair. I guess “Au Pair Mania” just doesn't sound as exciting. There are plenty of tricks you can learn to manage your time more effectively. Like, gathering up all of the laundry and doing it in one load instead of individually...at least until the teens show up.
This game really reminds me of the original Sims (before I discovered the cheat codes and hired a live-in butler). It's got a bit of a Diner Dash feel, too, since time management is a huge part of the game.
There's 150 levels, so expect to play for a long time. If you beat it, you get to start over again with a new family, so the game is essentially never ending.
My verdict – it's worth checking out, especially if you have some free time to kill. I've played it through three times already. It would be great to see a tougher sequel with more random events and challenges.
LISA
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