Mama’s proven herself in the kitchen with the super popular Cooking Mama games, and she’s even shown us she has a green thumb with Gardening Mama. Now she’s ready to take on the toughest job yet: babysitting! Babysitting Mama for Nintendo Wii comes with a real plush baby doll and you fit the Wii remote inside it to play. If you have a little girl who enjoys playing with dolls AND video games, this is a great Christmas gift idea for them. Read on to see how this crazy unique game works, plus a bonus mini-review of the new Crafting Mama for DS!

After starting the Babysitting Mama game, you’ll insert the Wii remote in the back of the baby doll. Connect the nunchuck to make game selections and play certain games. Many of the mini-games will require you to interact with the doll and gently rock it or pat the baby to burp. Since the Wii remote has a speaker in it, you’ll hear the baby cry and giggle while playing! But you might want to turn the Wii remote volume down in the Wii options menu, though. The game constantly reminds you in the loading screens to never shake the baby, and will stop the game if you do.

The main game plays a lot like Cooking Mama. You’ll have to complete a stream of mini-games to comfort and entertain each baby. In some games you’ll use the remote to rock or burp the infant. Other games require the nunchuck to move things around with the control stick, or shake the nunchuck like a baby’s rattle. Sometimes right in the middle of these games, an emergency might happen, like Mama might have left something burning on the oven. So then you’ll have to play a tiny game to solve the problem so you can get back to minding the baby. Completing babysitting challenges unlocks new babies to play with, more games, and even pictures for your photo album. Two players can even challenge each other in multiplayer mode babysitting.

Like Mama’s other titles, Babysitting Mama does have a few problems. While the game constantly reminds you not to shake the baby, some of the game choices are a little questionable. I would never let a baby play with old newspapers, for instance. But you do that in one of the mini-games! Also, most of the time the difficulty level is pretty easy and light, perfect for younger gamers. But some of the challenges are a little unclear and confusing, and might frustrate little kids. And finally, the game only comes with a light-skinned doll. They should’ve made darker skinned dolls, too. But at least you can play with a wide ethnic variety of babies in the game, though.

Kid Factor:

Babysitting Mama is rated E for Everyone with an ESRB descriptor of Comic Mischief. Even though the game isn’t perfect and certainly not for everyone (I felt pretty silly playing this game myself), I think little girls who enjoy baby dolls and video games would love Babysitting Mama. The price is pretty reasonable as you get both a game and a pretty nice plush toy for the same price as most standalone Wii titles. And the packaging is real clever, too. The box for the game even looks like a little cradle you can save for when it’s time to go ‘night-night.’ Reading skill isn’t required as everything has picture cues and Mama explains what you need to do (Sort of, anyway. Anyone who has played past Mama titles know how unintelligible her voice can be sometimes). Babysitting Mama is a weird, wacky, and whimsical take on caretaking video games!

Bonus Mini-Review: Crafting Mama (DS)

Mama likes to cook, garden, babysit, and now she’s getting artsy and crafty, too. Crafting Mama plays a lot like Cooking Mama games; except for instead of playing stylus and touch screen based mini-games to make food, you do the same to make crafts. You’ll build all sorts of stuff: jewelry, birdhouses, candles, knitted scarves, even paper airplanes. More than 50 crafts in all. Once you’ve made a craft and gotten rated, you can even play a mini-game using your craft, or make Mama wear it!

Kid Factor:

Crafting Mama is rated E for Everyone with an ESRB descriptor of Comic Mischief. Reading skill is helpful for the instructions. A small handful of the mini-games are a little confusing and frustrating, and there aren’t as many unlockables as in past Mama titles.

The best part of the game is that many of these crafts can really be done by you and your kids. I recommend playing the game with them and finding a craft you both like that you can all do together in real life. The game doesn’t give step by step instructions on how to make each item, but it can give you a good idea on how to start.

Tags: Game Reviews