Emergency Mayhem
By Harold Goldberg,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Rescue-worker game, with flawed controls.

A Lot or a Little?
What you will—and won't—find in this game.
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What’s It About?
When you read the packaging of EMERGENCY MAYHEM, you'll think, \"What a fine idea!\" It appears to be a mission-based game full of driving and saving lives where you get to play as a cop, a fireman, or an EMT in eight different environments. You work to save lives or even fix a signal light as a cop. Unfortunately the controls and onscreen directions make this Wii game a disaster that's just not ready for prime time. And that's strange because this game, in which you try to stop mayhem on the mean streets of Crisis City, has been in development for about four years.
Is It Any Good?
Here's why it isn't very good. You'll use the nunchuk to steer through various city precincts, but moving any vehicle in reverse is a real problem. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Even more upsetting is an arrow that's supposed to help you to get to your next mission. It doesn't work. If GPS devices were like this directional system, you'd be driving into houses and buildings constantly. These poor controls makes you want to stop playing before you're an hour into the game.
If you're up to dealing with frustrating control system, you'll have four kinds of driving missions to deal with: delivery of goods to a certain place; timed, where you must achieve something (like getting a fly out of someone's stomach) in a specific period of time; delicate, in which crashing into other cars is a big no-no; and special, which asks you to crash into a criminal's car to damage the vehicle. Along the way, you'll also meet cute, but crazed monkeys and penguins you'll have to round up. The sad thing is that with a little more fine tuning, the game could have been a little gem. As it stands now, though, the only mayhem you'll encounter here is the one permeating your mind as you try to make sense of a game full of flaws.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about what the police, fire department, and EMT crews do to help cities and towns stay safe and healthy. Did playing this game make you want to join the police force, the fire department, or become an EMT?
Game Details
- Platform: Nintendo Wii
- Available online?: Not available online
- Publisher: Codemasters
- Release date: April 15, 2008
- Genre: Action/Adventure
- ESRB rating: T for Cartoon Violence and Comic Mischief
- Last updated: November 4, 2015
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