Review of Help Wanted

It seems like every week a new batch of Wii games get released that promise a lot of fun and flash. They lure the money out of your pocket only to turn out to be worthless junk once you get them home and try them out. This seems to be especially true when it comes to the mini game genre. The truly great ones, such as the Mario Party series, are worth double their cost but are as rare as hen's teeth. I was reluctant to throw money at another piece of junk game, but since this was created by Hudson Soft, the company that works on so many of the actual Mario Party games, I decided to give it a try. What a pleasant surprise!

First of all, the game is priced at a nice level even though it's a brand new release. The game is structured around a story that's more than a little far-fetched. A meteor is headed for earth and you are the only one who can stop it. You can purchase items that will slow down the meteor to buy you time, or buy items that will damage the meteor as you attempt to destroy it, or eventually buy a watch that will make you a superhero with the ability to save the earth. Of course, these items cost money and you earn the money by taking on the "jobs" that are the actual mini games. You begin with a selection of 3 jobs and you can perform 1 per day. As you earn money you unlock additional jobs that pay more. That, in essence, is the somewhat silly story that the games are built around.

The story itself is somewhat of an annoyance because each day something happens that either earns you bonus money or hampers your efforts. This is the main reason I gave it a less than perfect rating. But the heart of any mini game compilation is in the games themselves and the "occupation" themed games in Help Wanted are simply a blast to play. A few examples:

Fisherman: in this game you motor your boat around and cast a net whenever fish are close enough for you to snag. You get paid based on the number of fish you catch. This one is initially tricky, but you can quickly purchase a larger net that allows you to make a lot of money quickly.

Courier: for this one you have to move around obstacles (sprinklers, dogs, etc) in order to get through the yard to the front door and deliver a package. After an attempt or two, this gets very easy and helps you rack up the big paychecks.

Farmer: In this game you harvest vegetables. It's basically built around timing a swing of the Wiimote to a ball moving around in a circle. It too takes a time or two to master, but gets easier in a hurry.

Manicurist: You have to custom design/copy the pattern on a fingernail using tweezers. This game involves a little tricky work with the wiimote, but pays better than the others I've mentioned.

EMT: You have to make your ways through busy hospital corridors to the emergency room while pushing a gurney. Again, this one is a bit more difficult.

As you become adept at these games, you open up a more challenging version of each of them, with a bump in pay as well. This way the games never become too stale.

Help Wanted is definitely NOT for the hard core gamer that's used to complex menus and dozens of control tricks that have to be mastered. But for kids and especially for folks like myself that play games for fun and to help me unwind for a while after work, this is the best mini game set to come out in at least the past year. When I first took it out of the box to give it a test-drive I planned on tinkering with it for a half-hour or so. When I next looked at the clock, almost 2 hours had gone by. It's the rare game that is so much fun that it makes me lose track of time like that.

The game has several modes in addition to what I've already described. There is a two player mode where you can compete head-to-head in the jobs as well as a gaming area where you can practice any of the jobs you have unlocked until you master them. Sadly, there is no online capability that allows you to compete with others, but this is a minor quibble.

I definitely recommend Help Wanted to anyone with kids over the age of 4 and it does have some limited educational value for the very young because it does give an idea (however simplified) of different career paths. I also recommend it for folks like my wife and I, who buy Wii games that we can enjoy together without a lot of violence and gore splattering all over the tv screen. The concept is novel and very entertaining.

As to the graphics, they aren't perfect by any means. There are a lot of things gaming purists would complain about. This is also true of the music and sound effects - especially during the "story" segments. But once again, if you are like me and buy games because they are fun to play and not because the blood and guts look SOOO realistic, you aren't going to care about that aspect of things. Visually the game is close to the graphics of any of the Mario or Donkey Kong games.

The replay value of the game is also pretty high because even when you complete it for the first time it's fun to play it over again to see if you can beat your records and earnings.

Well, that about covers it. The game looked good based on the description and ads and it turned out to be one of the few games that is actually much BETTER than advertised. With a price tag of under $30 Help Wanted is a bargain - especially when so many inferior games are sitting beside it on the shelf at close to double the price.



Click Here to see more reviews about: Help Wanted