Review: Men’s Room Mayhem

Posted by Ben on May 18th, 2013 | 3 Comments | Tags: men's room mayhem

Men’s Room Mayhem takes the formula made popular by the flight control games, and places it in an altogether different setting; that of a men’s bathroom. Differing ablutions replace airstrips, and fights replace crashes, but under the surface the ideas on display are relatively similar. However, Men’s Room Mayhem executes these ideas well, and provides a good enough twist on an old idea to prove entertaining.

The core idea is simple. You’re the janitor in a rest room, and people need to use your facilities. You have to move them from toilet, to sink, and then to the door without any incidents. This being a public bathroom, people are a little on edge, and prone to a little dust up if people get in their way. In each bathroom, there’s a different ‘obstacle’ to deal with, be it a drunk in the saloon, whose movement speed differs wildly from moment to moment, or the woman in the nightclub, who turns heads by simply being around the men. The additional factors to take in help mix up the levels, and keep the additional bathrooms from feeling less like different layouts, and more like different scenarios to manage. The process of unlocking these new areas is simple, with medals unlocked for performing various challenges, but the actual progression feels somewhat laborious, with a maximum of three medals to be awarded per playthrough. If a player were to make it through to the 7th wave, why deny them that medal, along with the 6 preceding ones? It feels somewhat strange to do it any other way, and it has the effect of frustrating a sense of progression more than anything. It’s easy to understand why the developer chose to structure the unlockable bathrooms in this way, but that doesn’t make it any less odd.

The game’s aesthetic is generally pleasing, with a great, fun art style decorating the proceedings. There’s an astounding attention to detail in some of the restrooms, from the clutter on floors to how every set of facilities is different, depending on the location. Sure, each location is a single screen, but that screen looks lovely. All of the patrons have a good sense of personality to their designs, and they all walk with an amusing sense of urgency when they enter the bathrooms. The sound design of the game is relatively inoffensive, with a series of appropriate noises, along with music that fades in to the background as you play. It’s bouncy, fun and generally lovely.

Men’s Room Mayhem is a lovely little slice of crisis management for your PS Vita. There’s nothing really more to it than you’d expect, but what is there has been executed well, and without any form of technical hiccups. If you’re after something to whittle away some of your time with, then you’d do a lot worse. Just expect to be playing it for a while to get at those additional restrooms.

A copy of this game was provided by the publisher for review purposes. For more info on our review policy click here. This review is for the PlayStation Vita version of the game.