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The health service has always been a popular career move - lots of chance for promotion, as well as the odd perk like taking home the used syringes to use as sewing needles, and so on. However, like any job, you have to start at the bottom and work your way up. Straight out of nursing college and into your first hospital, life isn't going to be easy. All them howling babies screaming for food and water and milk and love and hugs and attention and nappy changes, it's enough to drive you round the twist!

Nevertheless you, along with your fellow trainees, enter the hospital just as the last lot of students leave. They weren't very good. In fact they were awful and the baby ward is in utter chaos. The little darlings have all clambered out of their cots and are roaming around willy nilly.

As you might expect, babies aren't the most responsible of creatures: horrible grimy pink things that make ghastly noises at the most ridiculous times at night, and they're very inquisitive. Plug sockets and mysterious boxes hold a fatal attraction for the little dears and too much prodding and poking ends in a nasty shock for them - a 240 volt shock to be precise.

Each ward in the hospital is split into three levels, sometimes with a single cot on each floor, and occasionally more. A counter on the status screen shows how many babies are on the loose. Playing the part of Brenda Bumwipe, you must chase after each one of the little horrors, pick them up in your caring arms and deposit them in their own little cots. But who wants to be cooped up in a horrid hospital cot, eh? Not the babies, that's for sure. Out they clamber and begin wandering again.

Once you have collected up all the babies and put them back in their cots you can move onto the next ward. The wards rarely vary on layout, but as you proceed the baby population begins to grow and it becomes increasingly difficult to cope. It's just as well that you have five trainees to your credit - if poor old Brenda Bumwipe gets the boot then Fiona Feedface will have to step in and take over, and so on until all five trainees have been given the sack.

This game does have an initial novelty factor - after all, it's not often you can get away with throwing babies down lift shafts and letting them drink urine samples. The trouble is that once you've watched them fry, frazzle or fall a few times the novelty wears off and what you're left with is a rather dull collect-'em-up. The graphics aren't bad, the sound is quite jolly, but screens and screens of the same thing? No thanks.

Dropping babies down lift shafts or onto plug sockets was fun for a while, but once the novelty wore off I found Mad Nurse too monotonous to continue. The graphics are reasonable and the music is quite jolly, but one screen of simple action isn't enough. Still, if you've got two quid to spare and want a simple platform game then you'll find Mad Nurse fits the bill quite nicely.

To be brutally honest, Mad Nurse had me bored stiff after a mere half an hour of play. I was hoping for a good laugh after all that I had heard, but even seeing yabbering babies being electrocuted didn't evoke any laughter from me at all. The sound of the baby dying sounds more like a dalek, and as for the ghastly theme tune... Don't like it.

Presentation 85%
An attractive front end.

Graphics 34%
Poor sprites and a simple backdrop.

Sound 68%
Several jolly tunes play throughout.

Hookability 49%
Fun for a few games...

Lastability 28%
...but there's not enough variety to keep you playing.

Value For Money 38%
Not much game for two quid.

Overall 32%
A novel idea which hasn't made a decent game.