Household chores rank fairly low on my list of things I like to do. Even in the format of a computer game, there is just no way of making household chores fun. In Nanny Mania, you're the nanny that gets to clean up after the mayor and his untidy suburban family.
Nanny Mania looked like it would have been fun, with the top-down view of a nice home, where you get to manage a family. It was fun for maybe the first five levels, until you realize that each level is the same thing over and over. There are a lot of repetitive games that are addictive, but somehow this one doesn't quite get there. Maybe it has to do with the fact that you clean up after rich people who dump their clothes all over the floor and tread in dirt after playing golf.
As the nanny, you are in charge of keeping the house in order. Anything that needs to be cleaned or rearranged is highlighted in yellow. Most of the things that need to be done around the house involve one click, but laundry, cooking, diaper changing and others require a few steps to complete. The level is over once you've cleared everything that needs to be done. If you manage to do it under the perfect time that they give you, you'll get more points.
Everything is so repetitive because you start each level doing the same things: get the mail, collect all the dirty laundry, do laundry and then rearrange everything that is highlighted in yellow. When the baby cries, it's time to feed or change him. When everyone gathers in the kitchen, it's time to make their meal. Mom takes a bath, and you need to clean up after her. Dad comes in after a long day of golf, and you need to scrub the floor and arrange his dresser. Toddlers and kids like to knock things over and graffiti the bathroom mirror.
Nanny Mania is a seemingly never-ending game that forces you to clean up after bratty kids and sloppy parents. Like in real life, it's always frustrating to have everything organized, only to have someone make a mess again. There is no real strategy except that it's better to take a swig of coffee and then run around to collect all the laundry so you only have to do one load. An easy way to get the level to end is to wait until everyone gathers in the kitchen so that you can clean the rest of the house and then focus on the cooking. As the level of difficulty increases and the children get older, they don't have family dinners as often, so it's more about being the first one to clean up everything so that the day is over. The children are there to purposely make your life miserable, so you need to keep an eye on them and watch where they go next.
You can click on all the things that need to be done, and your commands are then executed in order. Right-clicking allows you to cancel everything and re-prioritize. Although I noticed that even if you cancel, sometimes your nanny will walk to the next area but won't do anything. The chores that require multiple steps to complete will flash to indicate what you need to do next.
If you're collecting dirty laundry, you're unable to do anything else until you offload it into the washer. But if you have an arm full of dishes, you are still able to clean the floor. Cooking takes awhile to finish, so it's always best to run off and do something else while you wait for the food to cook. These are just the little things that you'll come to notice so you can finish before the time runs out.
Nanny Mania might have been more interesting if there were more options and things to do or even a change of scenery. The music is the same tune over and over, and the only break you have is when you move to the next stage. You're picking up the same items and cleaning the same bookshelves day after day. Even the children look the same, and the furniture never changes. This has so far been one of my least favorite games casual games, and I really don't find it worth the effort.
I am a Canadian living in California with my husband and my precious baby Bailey (95lbs of labrador fun). I work full time and go to school, so finding the time to play video games is tough. I still manage to sneak some time in, whether it's playing on my GBA while I wait in line or sitting in the back seat of my car so I can use our dvd player to play the Gamecube on long trips. I've always been fairly decent at playing games to give my younger brother some competition. I started at the early age of 6 when I inherited an Atari 2600. I played any computer game I could get my hands on during those Commodore 64 days. Now I'll play anything from RPGs to first person shooters, racing games or basically anything that's fun and allows me to play with at least 3 other people.
