ESRB: E for Everyone
Genre: Simulation
Number of Players: One
Publisher: SouthPeak Games
Release Date: Nov 3, 2009
Buy it from our Amazon Store

PASS

The follow up to My Baby, First Steps has you all settled in at home with your 15 month old youngster. You are now reaching the stages of development where your son or daughter starts learning words, walking unassisted for the first time, building blocks that you will continue to nurture until they reach the 30 month marker.

After you have created your child, you will being with teaching him in the living room of your house. Sitting comfortably on his/her playmat you will teach them to say their first word. You can encourage them by speaking into the DS microphone and double tapping on them with your stylus. They will also learn to walk, which is assisted by selecting the cuddly toy icon in the bottom right of the screen and shaking it to either side to encourage movement. As you progress, you will help them learn to run and climb up the stairs.

Whenever you learn both actions required for the month you are working on, you will be given an update and a photo will be placed in your album. You will also receive a camera so that you can capture the precious moments in your child’s life, and either send them to Grandma for gifts or to the store to earn credit for buying items. There are lots of clothing and toys you can buy to accessorize with.

There are different areas of the house which contain “workshops”. The kitchen, bathroom, changing table, the bedroom, and sandbox are all areas you will unlock as you progress. Your child will begin to show signs of discomfort as he/she have needs to be attended to. Make sure you pay close attention so you can keep them clean and fed. At mealtimes, they might even attempt to feed themselves. Let them. Since its just a game, you don’t have to worry about food being thrown at you and having to clean up the mess. Cranky and not wanting to learn? Odds are they need a nap. Let them read the book and watch for them to motion you to turn the page for them. When they start to nod off, pick the right time and switch off the light.

Right off the bat, I am going to say if you are thinking of purchasing this for anyone with a poor reading level, then don’t. A grade 3-4 reading level is going to be required for a lot of the text you will encounter in the game. I would also say to aim for this age range or possibly higher (ages 11 & up is my honest suggestion) due to the high likelihood they will get a bit frustrated with controls. I had an awful time trying to get my little Bob to run with assistance, as the Hand icon kept disappearing on me, and then more control issues when trying to get him to run on his own by dragging the cuddly toy across the screen.

More problems happened when I went to give him a bath. After countless bath-times with no problem, suddenly I couldn’t get him covered in suds. After 10 minutes of rubbing the touch screen, I left frustrated that I might be ruining my screen from all the rubbing. Its difficult to wash a baby in real life as it is, I didn’t need to get upset with a game not registering my scrubbing.

All in all, I think this could be a good tool to test your child’s patience if they are thinking about babysitting and have no younger siblings to have supervised practice with. Nothing beats hands-on training in that department, but this will give your child a sense of what is entailed should they pursue it.

*Review product was provided by SouthPeak, and does not affect the outcome of this review.*