Too busy to devote 12+ hours a day to your gaming habit? Here's a review that's sensitive to your needs: Short and focused on just the things that a busy gamer like you really needs to know.
Busy Gamer Review-
WTF
Reviewed On: PSP
In a Nutshell: If your full-time work isn't tedious enough, you can pick up some odd jobs from the folks at Work Time Fun, a demonic temporary placement agency. At any moment there are four job positions (aka mini-games) available, and you can unlock more by feeding your ridiculous pittance they call a paycheck into coin-operated vending machines that suck up $1 per capsule all the way up to $50. More often than not, you'll collect junk that's simply catalogued and filed away, but every so often you'll unlock a new job or gadget to play with. Alas, these "jobs" tend to be very short and not much fun. You can put caps onto thousands of pens, or try to shag baseballs for as long as you can without a miss. Chop wood (but not the fuzzy stuffed animals that bleed when struck!) or find just the right target to hit with a "happy bullet." There are also "tools" that are quasi-useful: a flashlight mode where you choose the color you want your PSP screen to illuminate the world, a sexy Ramen noodle timer and even a set of customizable eyeballs to pay attention to you when no else will. Finally, you're continually harangued by "friends" via e-mails that provide tips and inane chatter but occasionally penalize or reward you.
Learning Curve: Each of the 35 single-player and five multiplayer games has its own rules, but most are reasonably easy to pick up - though some can take far too long to master.
The Save Game: Like all PSP games, you can hit the power switch at any time to put your game into sleep mode. As long as your battery holds out, so will your progress. But the game saves your status (or lack thereof) as you go, and most mini-games don't last more than a few minutes - so at least you won't lose any of that hard-earned money from the pen cap factory.
Family Factor: The game designers tried to make this somewhat family friendly, but the sniper rifle (even though it shoots "happy bullets") and stuffed animals that bleed might be a little much for the smaller kids peering over your shoulder while you work. Fortunately, you can usually pick a less violent and tediously boring task until they lose interest, which shouldn't take long.
Buy, Rent or Skip? Skip it, unless you really enjoy zoning out to mindless repetition. And even then, this game is actually a bit too muddled and uneven to earn you any real Zen. OK, so the Ramen timer is actually pretty funny, but hardly 30 bucks funny. If you must see for yourself, rent it first (say, from Gamefly.com) just to be sure you understand what you're getting yourself into. Even then, it's not worth more than maybe $10 - so see if you can find a deal on it used.
On a Personal Note: I rented this game on a whim while I was unemployed, thinking it might be an interesting diversion while I job searched. Boy was I wrong! Even my worst job as a teenager wasn't as bad as this. I do sometimes enjoy vegging out with games that have a certain repetitive quality - I recall a job eons ago where I killed time with Windows solitaire while waiting hours each week for my publisher to sign off on completed projects. But playing this game really felt like a chore. Seriously, if you're looking for odd jobs, I can hook you up. Don't get suckered into putting caps on virtual pens for hours on end just to earn enough scratch for one lousy $50 trinket. WTF indeed!
