Where's the hook in a game about a tough, thankless, even minimum-wage job? In Nanny Mania, you play a nanny—and not a sinister British nanny, or Zoe Baird's nanny, but a sturdy, unflappable woman who cleans up after a four-kid brood while mom and dad watch TV, strew clothes all over the floor, and track muddy footprints down the foyer. With a click of the mouse, you send the nanny racing from one pile of filth to the next.
If you take away the sweat and smells of a real nanny gig, the work is addictive. It's also limited, repetitive, and intensely stressful. Taking a page from the mega-hit Diner Dash—the same idea, but with waitresses—Nanny Mania hooks players with a fast-paced routine and just enough strategy to cook up on the fly. Can you make it to the nursery and back in time to catch the end of the spin cycle, thus shaving a few seconds off your record laundry time? And nothing leaks out of these diapers: The nastiest mess goes away with a single click, and the reward at the end of each round is a perfectly clean house.