Mr. Sleepy Man Review

You start in a room with an old-style TV, a “Lonely 64”, aka Nintendo 64, on the floor and a stack of games. One title sticks out: it’s a game called Mr. Sleepy Man, though the game calls it a Memory Card for some reason… You pick it up, place it in the console and turn on the system.

Suddenly, a purple monster hand comes out of the TV and grabs you, pulling you inside. You awaken as Mr. Sleepy Man, aka Sleepy, wearing his pyjamas and nightcap. He looks ready to hop back into bed, not go on an adventure!

There is a weird guy in the room with you, with one large gold tooth, named Teefy. The name is very fitting! As he rambles on about random stuff, you can walk around and eat brightly coloured cereal lying on the floor. He begs you to go back to bed because it’s so boring here and he forgot to put trousers on.

Mr. Teefy realises that you don’t have your blanket or pillow, so you need to find those first before you can have a nap. The blanket is hanging from the ceiling; when you go to grab it, a rock falls that you’re able to pick up and use to break the window. The security blanket also lets you glide when you jump.

When you break the window and leave, you arrive in Bedtime Town. To-do tasks pop up as you walk around, such as going to the clock tower or messing things up. As you complete them, they’re crossed off your list. There are multiple lists: Sleepy’s To Do, Teefy’s To Do, Important Things To Do, Bedtime Town To Do, and simply Other To Do.

You can cause so much chaos here. I stole the keys to Grandma’s car and took the fancy red vehicle for a spin. I accidentally hit a kid and a patrol officer, and now I’m wanted. If a police officer catches you, you’re thrown into prison to pay for your crimes. In jail, the only thing to do is go to sleep. When you do, you can restart the night or get up. This allows you to undo all your mistakes and restart with a clean slate. So essentially, if you’re going to do something bad, don’t get caught.

I woke up with Mr. Teefy again; this time, I opted to go back to sleep since my pillow and blanket were already there, I didn’t lose them when I started over. Instead, I learned a power called the Deep Sleep ability that lets you replenish your health clouds. Learning is hard, so you fall asleep again. This time, I was awakened by a cat named Big Blue Kitty in a completely different room. The two of you aren’t alone here; there are other beings you can’t talk to, as they just want to attack you, but Sleepy can fight back by swinging his pillow around.

If you run out of health, a nightmare we’ve seen on the TV appears. Its purple hand grabs you, and back to the beginning you go. The window you broke before is still smashed, so you won’t have to redo everything you did previously, and Sleepy remembers all the moves he learned.

Mr. Sleepy Man features some of the most unique and weird characters I’ve interacted with in a game. From Papa Bear, who has lost his son named Chunky to Mr. Teefy the creep who watches you sleep; and the bumbling patrol officers who punch you if you steal a doughnut… everyone here is strange, and not just in how they act.

Everyone you meet has a cartoony, chunky polygon look reminiscent of an N64 game. Bedtime Town doesn’t feel as sleepy as its name suggests; there’s always movement, from items bobbing on the river to water spraying out of a fountain and people running around. It seems like the only one who’s sleepy here is you, and the relaxing, dreamlike music fits this town perfectly.

Pause the game and you’ll hear the Mr. Sleepy Man theme, the same song from the main menu, on repeat; it’s an incredibly catchy tune! You can also look at the instruction manual in-game. Our character has a variety of moves, such as Jump, Throw Stuff, and Roll, as well as more unique ones like Snore, Sneak, and Sleep. Some pages are blacked out with question marks, so I’m sure they’ll be revealed as you progress.

The game feels very much like a 3D action-adventure title on the N64. You even control the camera, and your view can be blocked by walls and other objects in your way; Mr. Sleepy Man does a great job of emulating the feel of titles from that time period. There’s a lot to do here and plenty of chaos to cause; it’s a lot of fun stirring up trouble, until the game froze and I had to hard reset a couple of times.

At times, it felt like I was just wandering around without much direction. You have tasks on your to-do list to complete, but since they don’t seem to require a particular order and new ones keep getting added, I often found myself simply exploring and antagonising the residents. That said, if you enjoy games with a lot of freedom, Mr. Sleepy Man definitely delivers.

Mr. Sleepy Man is a title that fans of retro N64 games will enjoy. It does a great job of emulating the look and feel of those classics. However, if you aren’t a fan of games from that era, it might not be for you. But if you love being a troublemaker, there’s plenty here to keep you busy — just try not to get caught, or you’ll be sent to jail and forced to start over.