Men’s Room Mayhem Review

Bathroom humor is one of the most basic sources of comedy, and developer Ripstone wanted to capitalize on people’s undeniable love for scatological humor by releasing Men’s Room Mayhem, a game in which players control the flow of traffic in the men’s bathroom — and we all know how chaotic that can be [Hey, how do you know, Katrina? —Ed]. Will Men’s Room Mayhem soil itself barefoot in a gas station lavatory, or does it keep the fun flowing freely?

Men’s Room Mayhem is a line drawing game in the vein of Flight Control HD. Various characters enter the bathroom in order to relieve themselves, and it’s up to the player to direct them to the right place. A signal above the character will indicate whether they need to go “number one,” depicted by a yellow liquid drop, or “number two,” depicted by a roll of toilet paper (keeping it somewhat classy). From there the player draws a line to where the restroom patrons need to go.

It's not as simple as drawing lines from full bladders to open urinals — as the game progresses it adds in additional factors to consider. Each patron must not run into each other lest they get in a fight. Players are allowed five fights, and if you can’t keep the peace, the sixth fight ends your game. Different kinds of characters are thrown into the mix, too, like an elderly man who moves as slow as a sloth, or sometimes a woman will accidentally enter the men’s room, causing some of your embarrassed patrons to freeze in their tracks. If a character doesn’t make it to the proper place in time, they will pee on the floor, creating a big mess for you to clean up after each wave is complete. There are even etiquette bonuses for not using urinals right next to each other, and hand washing bonuses. Although, it should be noted that hand washing should be required -- just like in real life -- and not as a bonus.

The visitors come in waves, and continue flowing in as long as the timer is running and you haven't hit the fight limit. In between each wave you are given a timed opportunity to clean up messes and erase fight marks, allowing you to achieve a longer wave streak. The game is a dollar at base, with five different locations to play through and more available for the reasonable price of an additional dollar. Men’s Room Mayhem is simple, but it’s so darn pleasing seeing all the little guys make it to the bathroom in time and not run into each other. It's also more than a little chuckle-worthy watching them throw down in a messy bathroom, too!

One complaint -- just because there isn’t anything else to complain about -- is during the clean up round it gets pretty rough on the pads of your fingers. Time's pretty limited, and there seems to always be more messes to clean up than you'll have time to, so you're going to spend each bonus round frantically rubbing the screen. Every once in a while you’ll be rubbing so fast that the touch screen won’t register what your doing. But, those are very minor problems and don’t impact game play too much. Another minor quibble is that the game starts off sluggishly, giving you one client at a time, and requiring you to pass several waves before the tempo picks up and it actually becomes mayhem. Again, that’s not a big deal. It only requires patience.

Men’s Room Mayhem is an excellent line drawing game. The controls work well, there are lots of achievements, and it has some of the best music of any iOS game. It’s so cheerful you don’t care when someone doesn’t make it to the urinal. Tap into your inner twelve-year-old and help these people go pee and poop!

App Store Link: Men's Room Mayhem for iPhone & iPad | By Ripstone Ltd | Price: $0.99 | Version: 1.1 | 29.4 MB | Rating 12+