[GAME REVIEW] Men’s Room Mayhem, Teaching You What To Do When You Visit The Loo

When I first heard the concept of the game, Men’s Room Mayhem, I was sold; the path drawing genre has so much potential and while it has been explored for some themes, like planes and cars, there hasn’t been one with quite as much charisma as what Men’s Room Mayhem has. The brain child of developer Sawfly Studios and publisher Ripstone Games, Men’s Room Mayhem is a path drawing game that has you assuming the role of a bathroom janitor who directs patrons so that they may go about their business. A simple, but hilarious and lovable idea that we’ll take a look at in this game review.

Men’s Room Mayhem is made up two modes, Normal and Blitz; we’ll get onto Blitz later. Normal mode is structured by stages; starting out the game, you will have the first level unlocked, and as you complete objectives, these count towards unlocking the next stage. Each of these stages will have a different decor and different music theme to suit, which is a very nice touch; this might be ‘elevator’ music in a quiet restaurant bathroom, or the loud thumping music of a nightclub.

Objectives are listed at the start of each level and range from reaching a point score, to making sure nobody gets in a fight. In other path drawing games, the failure criteria is as simple as two paths crossing, such as in Flight Control, if two planes collide, the game is over. Men’s Room Mayhem is a little more forgiving, giving you 5 mishaps before ending the game. The mishaps that can occur include the paths of two men crossing, which ends up a match of fisticuffs or, as some patrons have a timer on how long before they need relief, they might just relieve themselves on the spot. And guess who’s the janitor…

Each stage is structured by waves and as you progress, the waves become more frantic and difficult. I’ve not gotten too far into the waves, but as far as I can tell, they may as well be infinite. As an interlude between waves, there is an opportunity to get bonus points by cleaning all the urinals, toilets and sinks in the bathrooms. Oh, and you remember those mishaps you will definitely be causing? You’ll have to clean those up first.

The art style in Men’s Room Mayhem is great: the environments are detailed, and the character models and types are all varied with their own personalities. Each character will have its own speed, bathroom use time, and even the face of the character that is shown while he is relieving himself. Apart from the normal patrons of the bathroom, there will also be special patrons who bring their own detrimental effects thatcan complicate your flow of people dramatically; for instance, there is the woman, who for undefined reasons is in the men’s bathroom. As she moves towards the cubicle, any man caught within her radius will be frozen in place until she moves past.

There are also other fun rules such as as etiquette bonuses; if you have ever watched the video about Men’s Room Etiquette (and if you haven’t, I suggest you do), you’ll know it is customary to leave a urinal between you and the next bathroom patron. In this way, Men’s Room Mayhem will reward you for adhering to this rule and a few others which will gain you precious bonus points.

If there’s one gripe I have about the game, it is the way the stages are unlocked. While objectives are the currency that unlocks stages in the game, there is only a maximum of 3 objectives that can be unlocked on each run on a stage. That wouldn’t be an issue if the stage was complete after the objectives are met, but the stage goes on until you either fail or quit. It’s a very subtle point, but it makes the “Normal” mode seem more like an infinite mode. There are a few other bugs here and there, like the stage menu takes awhile to load up, but apart from that, Men’s Room Mayhem is a pretty simple and well put together game.

The other mode of Men’s Room Mayhem is the previously mentioned Blitz mode, which gives you 2 mins to serve as many patrons as possible. While this is definitely a challenge for all who attempt this, there is a catch: Blitz Mode is an additional $0.99 IAP. Certainly, there are other IAPs in the game such as additional stages and characters that create even more conundrum which is pretty standard fare, but the extra $0.99 for Blitz mode bothers me since it seems like it should have been part of original game purchase; after all, it is a primary gameplay mode. Men’s Room Mayhem is a cool $0.99, so if they did want more money for the full game, it wouldn’t have been a stretch to make it $1.99 and have the whole game available from day 1. It just seems like a bit of inconvenience.

I’m also a little disappointed that there are no social features, such as online leaderboards for either mode. This would have definitely increased the game’s replayability as there is little more to replay in Men’s Room Mayhem apart from Blitz mode once you’ve unlocked all the stages.

These are all minor issues, though, as Men’s Room Mayhem is a great game. The gameplay is addictive, the levels are creative and the music really enhances the environment the bathroom is in. If there’s one game you don’t mind spending $0.99 on (or potentially $1.99) this weekend, it’s definitely worth a try. Grab it from the Play Store from the link below. After all, who doesn’t love toilet humour?

Game: Men’s Room Mayhem by Sawfly Studios

Play Store Link

Price: $0.99

by Stephen Yuen via AndroidSPIN