E3 Hands-On: Babysitting Mama - Preview
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 23 June 2010 / 15,970 Views
After five successful Cooking Mama games and a stint at gardening, Mama is ready for her craziest hobby/adventure yet: babysitting. Majesco's new Babysitting Mama may be a spin-off, but it doesn't just follow the tried-and-true minigame formula. It actually comes with Mama's first piece of merchandise. Introducing: the baby controller.
The Wii remote is hidden inside of the baby, and you operate your menus with the attached nunchuck, which is now your baby's tail. Then the games are actually played by moving your baby around to match prompts on the screen. Your baby can even make sounds, since there is a speaker on the Wii remote hidden inside of them.
Nick Simberg and I immediately asked our friendly Majesco representative what happens when you shake this baby. We're not babyshakers by any means, but we had to know if the game would allow such an atrocity. We were told that not only will the game not shake the virtual onscreen baby, but it will freeze and give you a warning about shaking babies. This isn't just a game! Babysitting Mama encourages responsible infant care. The creators were all REAL mamas!
Awwwww.
The first game I got to preview was rocking your baby to sleep, in which you rock your baby while Mama rocks hers on the screen. A few of the other minigames work in the same fashion. You must master cradling your baby, as demonstrated in the photo above, and then you follow Mama's moves, as demonstrated in the screenshots below:
These aren't the only activities in the game though. There are over 40 in all, including feeding, burping, changing, massaging, dressing, and washing your baby, as well as playing games with your baby, like peek-a-boo, hide and go seek. You can even take pictures of your baby, or race your babies against each other. There are also different stages and scenarios, and six babies to choose from, each with their own individual needs (which is polite babysitting code for "difficulty levels.")
This racing game uses the nunchuck, so you can't compete by seeing who can throw their babies across the living room faster. All 40 of the games can be enjoyed by two players at the same time, so you might want to draw a smiley baby face on a second Wii remote, or at least put a baby sticker on it.
Being both a doll and a game that can be enjoyed separately or together, this will probably be a great gift for any younger girls in your family this holiday season. And that's when BabySitting Mama will release for the Wii at $39.99.
