Be the nanny to a town full of wondrous and magical families in Gwen the Magic Nanny! Work for families of plants, wizards, frogs and robots, taking care of their babies, children, teenagers, seniors and even their pets. Use your time management skills and magical power to make sure your charges are fed, washed and ready for bed before the day is up. Do you have what it takes to become the best nanny in Fantasy Town?
Gwen the Magic Nanny begins with Gwen babysitting a typical young family in suburbia. She gets a call from the mayor congratulating her on becoming the best nanny in town due to her uncanny ability to always know what her charges want. As Gwen is letting the news sink in, she is suddenly teleported to the home of a mystical old woman. The old sage tells Gwen that her skill in babysitting is due to both her experience as well as her inherited magical powers.
As Gwen is adjusting to this new revelation, the old woman offers her the chance to be nanny to the families of Fantasy Town. These aren't normal human families though. She'll have to care for a plant family, a frog family and a robot family among others. Excited at the discovery of her magical power and eager to meet these strange families, Gwen accepts the offer and begins work at becoming the best nanny in Fantasy Town!
Your task is to help Gwen take care of the families, making sure that all their needs are met and that they are exhausted and ready for bed before each day is over. This includes providing the kids (and later on seniors and pets) with drink and food, bathing them and getting them to tire themselves playing games. Once they are totally exhausted, all you have to do is put them to bed and your job is done. Only problem is, there'll be nearly a dozen kids to worry about in the later levels. You've got your work cut out for you!
The mechanics in this game are a nice combination of the various styles present in other time management games. The kids will need to be dragged to the playpen or the dining table in order for them to interact with these objects. However, cooking the food and making the drinks require you to click on the relevant objects, and Gwen will walk across to work on them. There is also a bit of inventory management, as Gwen will need to pick up the prepared drinks and food (up to her carrying capacity), and then bring them to the dining table or the kids. It feels like this game provides good samples of the various time management play styles, keeping things from becoming too monotonous.
There is even a bit of hidden object gameplay in here. Each day, along with the main task of making sure the kids go to bed by day's end, you will also get a side task of finding hidden objects scattered around the house. This may sound pretty easy, but you'll be really pressed for time when you're juggling half a dozen kids (not literally). Taking a break from the nannying to look for these hidden objects will become quite challenging.
As expected in a time management game, you'll be able to buy upgrades between levels. These include equipment that have the standard effects such as increasing speed and inventory size. However, since Gwen has magical powers, some of the upgrades include spells that she can cast. These spells all have cool effects that make Gwen's life less hectic and help her complete her tasks a little easier.
The best thing about this game though is the entire premise and setting. You'll get to be nanny to 7 very different families, from a plant family and a frog family to a futuristic robot family. While the gameplay mechanics might be similar, the way each family goes about their day is pretty funny and entertaining. While the plants ask for dew as a snack, the frogs prefer flies. And while the frogs eat their meals on a table, the plants do it in a nice fertile soil bed. And bathing the robot kids involves sending them through a car wash style machine!
This game isn't too challenging in terms of mechanics, but does get hectic at the higher levels. However, the gameplay is secondary to the awesome creativity evident in the design of the various magical families and their unique and quirky ways of going about their daily lives. Overall, you will like Gwen the Magic Nanny if you like nanny-style games and enjoy experiencing weird and interesting environments and settings.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
You can read more about Gwen the Magic Nanny at
http://www.game-tycoon.com/gwen-the-magic-nanny.html